Letter to the Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding the 2002 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

םלועב םישנה רחסו תונזה תעפות רקחל העדות ןוכמ
leah2000@bezeqint.net :לאוד 03-6045128 :סקפ/לט ;61221 ביבא-לת 22197 .ד.ת

April 29, 2002

Secretary of State Colin Powell
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Powell,

We the undersigned are writing to you concerning the 2002 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
We urge you to remove the Netherlands and Germany from Tier 1 (the highest ranking) and place them
into a lower tier. In the last two years, they have legalized prostitution, pimping, and brothels?
policies that will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the trafficking of women to those countries.

As you know, the Trafficking Victim's Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 requires an annual report
assessing countries' efforts to combat trafficking in persons. As a minimum standard governments are
required to make serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking. One of the criteria is
"whether the government had adopted measures to prevent trafficking." Legalized prostitution, pimping,
and brothels severely violate this criterion.

In 2001, the first annual TIP Report ranked the Netherlands and Germany in Tier 1, meaning they fully
complied with the TVPA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Yet, we know that
legalizing prostitution, pimping, and brothels increases prostitution and the need for more women
in the sex industry.

For years prostitution was tolerated in the Netherlands, but in October 2000, the Netherlands
officially legalized prostitution and brothels. The Dutch sex industry is now a $1 billion business
or 5 percent of the Dutch economy, with the industry having increased 25 percent in the last decade [1].

One year after legalization of prostitution and brothels, traffickers control 50
percent of women in prostitution. [2]
Women in the sex industry in the Netherlands come from 32 different countries.
There are few Dutch women in the brothels. [3]
70 percent of the trafficked women are from Central and Eastern European
countries. 80 percent of these women have their passports confiscated, are
kept in isolation, forced to work long hours for no pay, and are physically
and emotionally abused by pimps, traffickers and male buyers. [4]
The Netherlands claims that legalization of the sex industry will make prostitution
safer, but the violence is so great that even basic comforts are a threat to women's
lives. Under the new laws, cushions are required for the beds. A brothel owner
responded, "It's common policy for brothels not to have cushions on the bed for fear
unruly customers might try to smother prostitutes." [5]

Tolerance and legalization of sex industries also leads to an increase in child prostitution.
The Amsterdam-based NGO ChildRight reported that from 1996 to 2001 the number of Dutch children
abused and exploited in prostitution increased from 4,000 to 15,000. [6]

The situation is similar in Germany. In December 2001, Germany legalized pimping and prostitution,
and officially stated that prostitution is no longer to be seen as immoral. The estimated turnover
from bars, clubs, and brothels connected to prostitution is $4.5 billion per year. [7] There are an
estimated 400,000 women in prostitution in Germany. [8]

75 percent of the prostitutes are foreigners. [9]
80 percent of the trafficked women in Germany are from Central and Eastern
Europe countries. [10]
Trafficking in women has grown over the past decade. In 1993, there were 517
cases of illegal sex slave trade; in 1996, the number was 1,094. [11]

Legalized prostitution makes it difficult to hold traffickers accountable for
their activities.

According to a Netherlands based NGO, traffickers evade prosecution by claiming the women
consented, and prosecutors generally have a hard time establishing the line between voluntary
and forced prostitution. [12] According to one report: "Where only forced prostitution is illegal;
inability to prove constraint has repeatedly led to international procurers being acquitted by
the courts." [13]

To meet the demand for women in legalized sex industries, countries will quickly move to circumvent
anti-trafficking laws. In 2000, at a US and Ukrainian government sponsored conference on trafficking
in women and children in Kyiv, Ukraine a representative from the Netherlands Embassy explained that
women outside the European Union had "working skills that could benefit the Netherlands." The Dutch
sex industry could be assisted by creating special work permits to allow "foreign nationals to engage
in prostitution." [14]

By using the TIP Report, the United States can send a clear message to the Netherlands, Germany, and
the entire world that we will stand firm against the trafficking of women for prostitution.
Legalization of prostitution creates a demand for more trafficked women.

Secretary Powell, we urge you to remove the Netherlands and Germany from Tier 1 and place them into
a lower tier in the 2002 TIP Report.

We await your action.

Sincerely,

[See list of signers starting on next page that represents 100,000s of Americans and advocates
for women and children around the world.]

cc:	Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Nancy Ely-Raphael, Director, Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons
Contact:	Donna M. Hughes Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies 316 Eleanor Roosevelt Hall University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI, 02881 1-401-874-2757 dhughes@uri.edu
	Lisa Thompson Coordinator, Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking The Salvation Army National Headquarters 615 Slaters Lane P.O. Box 269 Alexandria, Virginia, 22313 1 703 519 5896 lisa_thompson@usn.salvationarmy.org

Donna M. Hughes Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair Women's Studies Program University of Rhode Island Kingston, Rhode Island	Lisa L. Thompson Coordinator, Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking The Salvation Army	Shyla Welch, PhD Candidate Dissertation on pornography Regent University Virginia Beach, Virginia
Patrick A. Trueman Former Chief Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division U.S. Department of Justice	Kristen Houser Coordinator Sexual Assault Program Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition	Linda Smith Member of Congress '94-'98 Founder & Executive Director Shared Hope International Vancouver, Washington
Norma Hotaling Executive Director SAGE ProjectSan Francisco, California	Commissioner John A. Busby National Commander The Salvation Army	Amelia Lee Ponomarev Graduate, Barnard College & Columbia University
Sid Ford Executive Director & Founder YANA (You Are Never Alone) Baltimore, Maryland	Irwin Reynolds Administrator of Clinical Programs Salvation Army Correctional Services Chicago, Illinois	Mary McNeill Attorney National Obscenity Law Center Morality in Media
Michele Clark Mohammed Mattar The Protection Project Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Washington, DC	Alan E. Sears Formerly Executive Director Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, and Chief, Criminal Section & Assistant United States Attorney President, CEO & General Counsel Alliance Defense Fund Scottsdale, Arizona	Clare Nolan Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd NGO in special consultative status with ECOSOC United Nations
Mariam M. Bell National Director of Public Policy The Wilberforce Forum	Christina Arnold Project Hope International USA and Thailand	Joseph K. Grieboski President Institute on Religion and Public Policy
Meredith McGowan, Esq. Supervising Attorney Sanctuary for Families' Center for Battered Women's Legal Services New York, New York	Janice Shaw Crouse Senior Fellow Beverly LaHaye Institute: A Center for Studies in Women's Issues	Donald E. Wildmon President American Family Association Tupelo, Mississippi
Dianne Post Phoenix Women Take Back the Night Phoenix, Arizona	Miriam Lyons Children's Rights Consultant New York, New York	Robert Peters President Morality in Media
Barbara Ledeen Director of Coalitions Senate Republican Conference Chevy Chase, Maryland	Phyllis Kilbourn, International Director Rainbows of Hope	Shannon Royce Director of Government Relations and Counsel Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
Donna Robin Lippman Incest and Rape Recovery Center New York, New York	Sandy Rios President Concerned Women for America	Rev. Richard Cizik Vice-President for Governmental Affairs National Association of Evangelicals
Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence	Tom Minnery Vice President of Public Policy Focus on the Family Colorado Springs, Colorado	Chuck Donovan Executive Director Family Action Alliance
Behjat Dehghan Mansoureh Zamani Parvin Basiri Mahin Filabi Association of Iranian Women-USA	Patricia F. Meagher President The Meagher Company	Cherylyn A. Harley Senior Fellow Center for New Black Leadership Washington, D.C.
Jeanie Turner Director One Way Out Ministries Fort Myers, Florida	Colby M. May, Esq. Director Office of Government Affairs American Center for Law and Justice Washington, DC	William J Murray Chairman Religious Freedom Coalition Washington, DC
Larry Cirignano, Esq. President Catholic Vote.org PO Box 70695 Washington, DC	Ray Flynn Chairman Catholic Alliance	Sarah O'Shea Executive Director Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition
Jay Sekulow President American Center for Law & Justice Washington, DC	Donna Rice Hughes Child Internet Safety Advocate Child Online Protection Commissioner	Pastor Stephen Naff Woodside General Baptist Church Rockford, Illinois
Bill Johnson American Decency Association	Pastor Johnny Gipson Fairmount General Baptist Church St. Peters, Missouri	Dolores Bardon Board Member Northern Great Lakes Synod Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Iron Mountain, MI
Ken Smitherman President Association of Christian Schools International	Michael Geer President Pennsy lvania Family Institute Harrisburg, Pennsylvania	Judith Reisman President The Institute for Media Education Sacramento, California
Christine O'Donnell Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth (SALT)	Virginia Patterson Teacher English as a Second Language Bartlett, Illinois	William T. Devlin President Urban Family
Diana E. H. Russell Emerita Professor of Sociology Mills College Oakland, California	Catherine Edwards Sanders Journalism Fellow The Phillips Foundation Washington, DC	Ed Hynes Morality in Media Lords Valley, Pennsylvania
Stephen D. Grubman-Black Professor, Women's Studies & Communication Studies University of Rhode Island Kingston, Rhode Island	Megan Wolf Elementary Educator Volunteer Orange County Rape Crisis Center Chapel Hill, North Carolina	Lesley A. Rimmel Assistant Professor Department of History School of International Studies Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma
Sona Aronian Professor, Russian & Women's Studies University of Rhode Island Kingston, Rhode Island	Susan Smith Undergraduate Women's Studies & Human Development and Family Studies Pennsylvania State University	Vicki Meyer, Ph.D. Senior Academy University South Florida
Janice Franck Dunnell, Minnesota	Jennifer Bayne Student Princeton Theological Seminary Hopewell USA	Michele R. Decker Graduate Student University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Laura Barnitz Silver Spring, Maryland	Leslie Conway Coomer Monroe City, Indiana	Theodora Howell Canoga Park, California
Adam Freer Student Princeton Theological Seminary Rutgers University School of Social Work	Rebecca Whisnant Assistant Professor Philosophy & Political Science University of Southern Indiana	Cynthia Olson-Mattison, RN West Greenwich, Rhode Island
Amber L. Rose Cynthiana, Kentucky	Kathy Redmond Bellevue, Kentucky	Kendall Goode Manassas, Virginia
Kara Olivier Dillon, Montana	Twiss Butler Alexandria, Virginia
	International Signers
Mariya S. Sagitova Lawyer Crisis Center for Women St. Petersburg Russia	Marjut Jyrkinen Researcher Swedish School of Economics Helsinki, Finland	Leah Gruenpeter Gold Nissan Ben - Ami Co-Directors Machon Toda`a - Awareness Center Tel-Aviv, Israel
Shu-Ling Hwang Taipei Women Rescue Foundation Taiwan	Cecilia Hofmann Dumaguete TUBURAN Foundation Negros Oriental Philippines

Footnotes:

[1] Suzanne Daley, "New rights for Dutch prostitutes, but no gain,"
New York Times, 12 August 2001.

[2] Ralf Bodelier, "Outlawed Women," De Volkskrant, October 20, 2001.

[3] International Organization for Migration (IOM), Trafficking and Prostitution:
The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe, May 1995.

[4] IOM, Trafficking and Prostitution, May 1995.

[5] "Legalisation gives Dutch sex clubs a headache," Agence France Presse, June 27, 2001.

[6] Carin Tiggeloven, "Child Prostitution in the Netherlands," Radio Netherlands,
18 December 2001.

[7] Rob Broomby, "German prostitutes get new rights," BBC News, 20 December, 2001.

[8] Irena Omelaniuk and Ginette Baerten, "Trafficking in women from Central
and Eastern Europe? Focus on Germany," in Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, 1999 Review.
(Vienna: International Organization for Migration and International Center for Migration Policy
Development, March 1999).

[9] International Organization for Migration, "Trafficking of Women to the European
Union: Characteristic, Trends and Policy Issues," European Conference on Trafficking in
Women, June 1996.

[10] International Organization for Migration, Information Campaign.

[11] The German Family Ministry in "German police swoop on suspected sex slavery
ring," Reuters; 19 March 1998.

[12] Lily Hyde, "Women's groups battle sex slavery," Kyiv Post, 23 January 1998.

[13] Michele Hirsch, Plan of Action Against Traffic in Women and Forced
Prostitution, Council of Europe, 1996.

[14] Comment at US-Ukraine Regional Law Enforcement Workshop Against Trafficking
in Women and Children, Kyiv, Ukraine, June 2000.

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