Spring Break
Professor triumphs with sex trafficking legislation
Chris Curtis
Issue date: 1/22/09 Section: News
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The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act is the third revision and reauthorization of an act first passed in 2000 by then-President Bill Clinton and intended to protect the victims of human trafficking, whether for labor, war or sexual purposes in the United States and abroad.
Hughes, who helped author the bill, witnessed its passage in the company of a select group of advocates and high-ranking government officials including Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Dec. 23, 2008.
Hughes has been involved with the issue of sex trafficking for the past 25 years, and contributed to the bill as a member of what she described as a bipartisan coalition of groups that have worked to understand and address the problem.
The revised law expands the margin for prosecution of pimps and traffickers, closes a number of loopholes, and provides funding for prevention and victims support programs.
The original bill created the Trafficking in Persons Office, an organization to monitor trafficking worldwide and to rate countries in a three-tier system based on trafficking levels and government efforts to combat the trade.
The most recent revision updates the criteria by which nations are evaluated, requiring that they show "serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex." This new stipulation is intended to address nations in which prostitution is legal.
