By Chandra Bhatnagar, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program at 7:07pm
A White House task force set up to combat human trafficking held its annual meeting today, chaired by Secretary of State John Kerry. The cabinet-level group, called the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF) coordinates the U.S. government's efforts to eradicate the phenomenon commonly likened to "modern-day slavery."
An international human rights body is set to question the United States on its obligations under a key human rights treaty. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, an independent body of experts tasked with monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), this week released its list of issues, which will serve as the basis for its upcoming review of U.S. compliance with the treaty. The U.S. ratified the ICCPR in 1992 and is obligated to submit to periodic reviews of its treaty implementation efforts.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that human trafficking is a problem of "crisis proportions," both outside and inside America's borders. Yet despite professed intent to end this scourge, including with the help of a "zero-tolerance, one strike approach," human trafficking remains a pervasive and ongoing problem in this nation. As part of ongoing efforts to combat the phenomenon, the ACLU and a coalition of anti-trafficking organizations submitted a written statement last week to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council, urging the U.S. government to translate its words into actions.
By Carol Rose, Executive Director, ACLU of Massachusetts at 4:30pm
Today's utterance by Chief Judge Sandra Lynch, of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, gives me hope that the court will do justice for the victims of human trafficking who will be impacted by how the First Circuit rules in a case argued before it this morning.
By Amshula Jayaram, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:54pm
The New York Times issued an editorial Tuesday praising President Obama’s Executive Order to end human trafficking in government contracts. The Times viewed the order as an important step towards eliminating this shameful practice. The Times also called for Congress to pass the End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act, which would provide the legislative muscle to enforce and make permanent the measures contained in the Executive Order to eliminate human trafficking from government contracting processes.
By Devon Chaffee, Legislative Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:56pm
Today, President Barack Obama signed an executive order that will give better protections to vulnerable workers employed by government contractors. The order, announced on the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, lays out new requirements for U.S. government contractors and their subcontractors operating overseas to prevent human trafficking and forced labor. In a powerful speech this morning announcing the order, President Obama recognized that U.S. tax payer dollars should never be used to support human trafficking, a form of modern day slavery.
By Devon Chaffee, Legislative Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:44pm
Last month the ACLU released a joint report with Yale Law School, Victims of Complacency, that documents the ongoing trafficking, forced labor and abuse of foreign workers hired through U.S. government contracts to work in support of U.S. military and diplomatic missions abroad. Recruited from impoverished villages in countries such as India, Nepal and the Philippines, these men and women – known as Third Country Nationals – are charged exorbitant recruitment fees, lied to about what country they will be taken to and how much they will be paid, and often have no choice but to live and work in unacceptable and unsafe conditions. These abuses amount to modern day slavery; all on the U.S. tax payers’ dime. Now members of Congress want to act to ensure that federal funds are no longer facilitating such exploitative, abusive and illegal practices.
By Steven Watt, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program & Valerie Brender, Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project at 1:29pm
Ramesh, a college graduate from India, borrowed $5,000 from a loan shark to pay a recruiting agent for the opportunity to work in Kuwait as a storekeeper at a wage of $800/month. His aims were simple: to provide a better life for himself and his family.
By Steven Watt, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program at 5:36pm
Last week in Little Rock, Ark., Attorney General Eric Holder spoke eloquently and forcefully on the problems of human trafficking in the U.S. Holder noted the problem — one of "crisis proportions" — takes place both outside and within our borders:
In communities nationwide, human trafficking victims often are hiding in plain sight: the young woman who traveled to America for the promise of a new life, but finds herself enslaved and sold for sex. The child who was born here, but ran away from home and, in desperation, accepted help from the wrong person. The migrant worker who is deprived of identification, transportation, health care, and access to money in order to ensure complete dependence on his employer. Or one of the many young girls regularly shuttled to truck stops along I-40 — who is filled with shame and empty of hope, living in fear of incarceration and in doubt of her ability to survive on her own.
Holder described the current administration's adoption of many far-reaching measures by numerous government agencies to eradicate trafficking wherever and however it occurs, and stated that the U.S. has a "'zero-tolerance, one-strike' approach" to the problem.
