NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

NATO DEFENSE COLLEGE LECTURE

by Ambassador Jim Nicholson

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Dean John Berry,

Colonel Antonio Colacicco,

Counsellor Sule Nisanci

Senior Course Members,

Thank you for your warm welcome. I thank each of you for your interest in learning about one of the most pressing issues of our time-- trafficking in persons. Before we get into the subject matter, I want to thank Dean John Berry for inviting me here today to discuss this issue. Dean Berry has advocated for NATO personnel to be trained on a Code of Conduct while on deployment, on how they should respond to cases of trafficking in persons, and on the risks that trafficking presents to the success of military missions. He has called for serious, professional and aggressive approaches to meet this challenge head-on. Like a good soldier, he has pursued this mission with commitment, courage and decisiveness. I thank you and salute your efforts, Dean Berry, on this very important and strategic initiative.

Trafficking in persons— also known by the acronym TIP—is what we’re going to spend the next 45 minutes exploring. It is nothing less than a modern form of slavery. As unimaginable as it seems, slavery and bondage still persist in the early 21st century. This is an evil that we thought had been banished from the world, but it is back -- alive and well, and in countries on every continent, including the United States. By a conservative estimate, 27 million people are enslaved in some form today worldwide—more than at any time in history. Worldwide, at least 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year. Of those, it is believed that more than 80 percent are women and girls, and that 70 percent of them were forced into sexual servitude.

Italy is a major country of destination for sex and labor trafficking. Italian authorities have estimated that there are 25,000-30,000 trafficking victims in the country. And in the United States, it is estimated that between 14,500 and 17,500 victims of trafficking cross our borders every year. The United Nations believes that trafficking of human beings is now the third largest source of money for organized crime, behind the illicit sale of drugs and arms. Human trafficking is a $10 billion dollar a year global criminal industry. It procures great profits for criminal groups who treat their victims as nothing more than goods and commodities for sale to the highest bidder. In return, these profits help criminal groups to establish and to expand their influence both inside the states in which they operate, and well beyond.

And there is a distinction between the profit mechanisms of the illicit sale of drugs and arms and that of selling young women and children. The seller of arms and drugs gets paid for his product once-- one transaction, one payment. For the seller—often referred to as traffickers, coyotes, madams, or pimps—of young women and children it’s rarely a one-time transaction. These pimps and madams continue to sell, and resell, their product--young girls and children--hundreds, sometimes thousands, of times over. That is until their product is no longer any good— diseased with HIV/AIDS, broken emotionally and spiritually, physically disabled, driven clinically insane, or dead from a murder of passion committed by a customer, or dead by her own hands in a desperate act of suicide. I know firsthand of cases of each of the situations I’ve just described. Yes, thousands of people are making enormous profit off the misery of the millions of those who are the youngest, the weakest and the most vulnerable of our human family.

I knew very little about this phenomenon before coming to Rome as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See in September of 2001. In my pre-post briefings in Washington, D.C., the global context of the issue was brought to my attention for the first time, with specific attention paid to the presence of this problem in the streets and back allies of Italy. So, you might legitimately ask why the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See would be working with the Vatican to address human trafficking? The answer is first and foremost because the United States and the Holy See share a common vision — the pursuit, promotion, and protection of human dignity. The United States and the Holy See agree that trafficking in persons is one of the greatest affronts to human dignity that the world has ever seen. So, the Holy See—like the United States—has been a powerful and consistent voice calling to eradicate this modern-day slavery in the international community. Both President George Bush and Pope John Paul II have brought this issue to the world’s attention with urgency and commitment, identifying it as one of the greatest threats to human dignity. Secondly, despite the fact that the Holy See is clearly not in a country of origin, transit, or destination for trafficking, it has a moral megaphone that can influence actions in many countries. While trying to help shape the Holy See's focus on this issue, I have made trafficking in persons a priority of my diplomatic mission. I will address my Embassy’s specific efforts to raise awareness and eradicate this 21 st century slavery later in this lecture.

I’d like to now put this phenomenon in a modern historical context.

Although slavery has existed since ancient times,the 1815 Declaration Relative to the Universal Abolition of the Slave Trade—referred to as “the 1815 Declaration”—was the first international instrument to ever condemn it. Between 1815 and 1957 some 300 international agreements were implemented to suppress slavery.

After the Second World War the United Nations continued working toward the elimination of slavery, and as a result it is now a well-established principle of international law that the “prohibition against slavery and slavery-related practices have achieved the level of customary international law…”

And the International Court of Justice has identified protection from slavery as one of two examples of “obligations erga omnes arising out of human rights law,” or obligations owed by a State to the international community as a whole. The practice of slavery has thus been universally accepted as a crime against humanity, and the right to be free from enslavement is considered so fundamental “that all nations have standing to bring offending states before the Court of Justice.” According to the Court, slavery, slave-related practices, and forced labor constitute :

• A “war-crime” when committed by a belligerent against the national of another belligerent;
• A “crime against humanity” when committed by public officials against any person irrespective of circumstances and diversity of nationality;
• A common international crime when committed by public officials or private persons against any person.

Now I’d like to discuss several types and forms of slavery practiced around the world today. They include :

Chattel slavery – in which slaveholders maintain ownership no longer through legalities, but through use of violence

Debt bondage – in which a human being becomes collateral against a loan

Forced labor – where individuals are lured by the promise of a good job, and instead, find themselves enslaved

And the most common form of slavery found today—widespread throughout South Asia—issex slavery, where girls are often forced into prostitution by their own husbands, fathers, and brothers to earn money for the men in the family to pay back local money lenders…or sometimes simply to put food on the family table. Others are lured by offers of good jobs and then beaten and forced to work in brothels. This form of modern-day slavery is a growing phenomenon—not only in South Asia—but also in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Italy, and even the United States.

Today in this lecture hall, we have individuals from 31 different countries. Each of you will likely come face-to-face with this issue—if you haven’t already—in your home countries, or those to which you are, or will be, assigned. They might be countries of origin, countries of transit, or countries of destination for victims of trafficking. Try as you might, it is unlikely that you will avoid contact with this issue. Particularly when examples are as widespread as

• Albania , where teenage girls are tricked into sex slavery and trafficked by organized crime rings;
• India where children trapped into debt bondage roll cigarettes for 14 hours a day;
• The United Arab Emirates where Bangladeshi boys are transported and exploited for camel racing;
• Thailand where women and children become sex slaves for tourists.

In 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the President enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), recently amended by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003. The TVPA seeks to combat human trafficking by punishing traffickers, protecting victims, and mobilizing U.S. government agencies to wage a global anti-trafficking campaign. The TVPA, as amended, contains significant mandates for the Department of State, Justice, Labor, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. President Bush takes this issue so seriously, he has a specific office to address it --The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Each year that office issues a report on the status of trafficking in persons in over 140 countries. Each year it proves to be one of the most authoritative documents on the issue. Through the process of drafting and coordinating its annual TIP report, the Office found that several common misperceptions exist among foreign governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on this issue. These misperceptions complicate global efforts to advance anti-TIP goals, programs and missions.

To make you more effective in addressing trafficking in persons during your service in peacekeeping missions around the globe, I want to spend some time clarifying the most widespread misconceptions.

[PP slide] Misconception #1: For trafficking in persons to occur, movement is necessary. False. The term “trafficking” does invoke an image of people being moved, involuntarily. In reality, however, trafficking need not involve any movement at all. It need not take place across international borders; it can take place within a country or town, a village, or even a home. An example: a child forced to work in a brick kiln under the threat of harm or physical restraint in his own village isa trafficking victim—even though he didn’t move. Trafficking, under this criteria, involves all forms of slavery or slavery-like practices, including: forced child soldiering; involuntary servitude; debt bondage, and sexual slavery. I repeat, none of these forms of trafficking requires that the victim be moved or transported.

[PP slide] Misconception #2: If there is consent, there is not trafficking. False. Many governments have difficulty accepting that voluntary migrants and adults who consensually enter into a legal labor contract or who consensually enter the sex trade can become victims of trafficking in persons. The United States TIP Office frequently encounters foreign officials who assert that if a foreign migrant arrives in their country voluntarily, whatever happens to him or her, no matter how exploitive, it cannot be considered “trafficking.” But I want to clarify—an employment relationship can start out as non-exploitive and become a trafficking situation. For example, economic migrants who seek jobs within their communities or travel to other communities—within their countries or to other countries—can fall into a trafficking situation if they are exploited to the point of having their freedoms denied by employers who subject them to involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery. The same can be true for men or women who voluntarily enter the sex trade in their communities or travel to other communities to engage in prostitution. If their basic freedoms are denied in the commercial sex business—for example, they cannot leave and do not have control over their bodies or basic decisions affecting their health and well-being, such as forced abortion—they become victims of trafficking in persons.

[PP slide] Misperception #3: Child Prostitutes are engaged in “consensual” agreements. False. Most persons under the age of 18 who are recruited, transported, harbored or received for commercial sexual exploitation are trafficking victims, period. Children under the age of 18 who are recruited for or harbored for the sex trade by a trafficker—including by a pimp, a brothel owner, a taxi driver who introduces clients to child prostitutes on the street, or by a hotel owner or manager who “looks the other way” for clients taking child prostitutes to their rooms—these minors are automatically trafficking victims, even if there has been no element of force, fraud or coercion involved. It should also be noted that the “United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography” requires every country to criminalize offering, obtaining, procuring, or providing a minor for prostitution.

[PP slide] Misconception # 4: Forced Labor is not trafficking. False. A situation in which a child’s forced labor is exploited for another’s commercial economic gain --usually involving someone outside of the family setting--is trafficking. Forced labor is by far the largest form of trafficking around the world, with over 20 million victims, according to the International Labor office (ILO) of the United Nations.

As I hope you have gathered from my comments so far, trafficking in human beings is a distinctive form of organized crime that threatens the security and stability of every society. It takes many forms—involuntary servitude, prostitution, sex exploitation, debt bondage, labor trafficking and others. The underlying sources of trafficking are many and complex. In many societies, there is a lack of basic respect and economic opportunity for women. Civil strife and corruption drive people to desperation and into the clutches of traffickers. Racism plays its part as well. This phenomenon is most prevalent in the regions in conflict or post-conflict, often marked by corruption or the absence of rule of law. It is, in fact, most prevalent in the very regions, areas, and conflict zones to which you many of you might be sent to serve as soldiers in peacekeeping missions. Clearly, the evils I have mentioned that give way to trafficking in persons won't be uprooted easily or quickly, but we have a moral obligation to the millions of its victims—and to the future of civil society--to fight this scourge—at the governmental, operational, and personal levels.

Now that we’ve somewhat defined what trafficking is and isn’t -- I want to share with you some dramatic video that will show you some of the human faces of this dirty, horrendous and brutal business I’ve been describing. If only for a few brief moments – we will see “how it really is.” It is my hope that this glimpse might help kindle-- in all of us-- a greater sense of obligation to become more involved in fighting this modern-day slavery that binds men, women, and children in every corner of the globe today.

The video you are about to see is a 12-minute excerpt from a newspiece that was broadcast on NBC Dateline in January of this year. The piece, entitled “Children for Sale,” takes us to the brothels of Cambodia. You will see that it employs extensive use of hidden cameras. The TV producers posed as sexual predators in order to gain access to an underworld that would otherwise never be brought to light. It shockingly reveals just how vulnerable--and young-- some of the victims of human trafficking truly are.

Can we please lower the lights and run the video. Thank you.

...

Some of the images you just saw may have disturbed you. That’s good. It serves no purpose to sanitize trafficking in persons in order to protect our sensibilities. Trafficking is an evil and brutal business. But it is also more than that.

Given the threats, the dimensions and the multiple forms trafficking in persons takes---it is important to teach and train troops about the human trafficking challenge so that they better understand that criminal elements profit from human trafficking—the same criminal elements who are likely to be involved in other illegal enterprises such as selling drugs and weapons. The U.S. State Department has found “direct linkages between trafficking in persons and terrorism.”

Trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, and terrorist mobility are transnational security threats that often raise significant human rights, rule of law and corruption concerns. They all share a number of characteristics, particularly the underlying criminal activity and illicit travel. Both human traffickers and terrorist organizations can tap into smuggling networks and the fraudulent document industry to move victims or operatives across international borders. The national commission on terrorist attacks upon the United States—the 9/11 Commission—has reported: “Targeting terrorist travel is at least as powerful a weapon against terrorists as targeting their money. The United States should combine terrorist travel intelligence, operations and law enforcement in a strategy to intercept terrorists, find terrorist travel facilitators, and constrain terrorist mobility. For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.”

Since its creation, NATO has contributed to the establishment of a just and lasting peace in Europe, built on common values and the defense of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The threats of human trafficking against individual liberties and international security destroy those values. This is especially true for the operational theaters and the peacekeeping missions where NATO nations and forces are employed. No one serving in NATO—no one anywhere—can turn a blind eye to this issue any longer. If we do not raise awareness, find multi-faceted and global approaches, and create laws with teeth, the trends I’ve outlined will continue and the Alliance will be weakened.

Without a higher level of awareness of this scourge, and without a stronger training program at all levels, the world community runs the risk of seriously underestimating the problem or worse, of burnishing it. Our efforts must be collaborative, where those governments, organizations, or individuals who know the problem best, contribute their expertise, and where those who are responsible for delivering the training provide their assistance. We have to respond to the battle with sufficient and just force. In the middle of the dramatic changes in its security environment, I encourage NATO’s efforts to adapt itself, its member states, and its partners—and in close cooperation with the host nations in which its forces operate—to face these new threats. And make no doubt about it—transnational crime, as committed through human trafficking, is absolutely one of these threats.

Even limited involvement of a few NATO personnel in the trafficking of humans can put in jeopardy not only the credibility of an operation, but also the force protection of NATO units. Force protection can suffer from leaks of information, from the vulnerability of those who are involved, and from the diminished readiness of troops who develop AIDS and other diseases. And that’s just to name a few threats. I repeat words from an address Dean Berry delivered in Geneva in September: “It is critical that NATO be trained in a Code of Conduct while on deployment, on the manner in which they should respond to cases in trafficking, and on the risks that trafficking presents to successful mission accomplishment. We need nothing less than serious, professional, and aggressive approaches to meeting this challenge head-on.”

In your capacity as soldiers, you may be hunting down the traffickers, serving justice by putting them behind bars, liberating captives, helping them recover from years of abuse and trauma. The lives of tens of thousands of innocent women and children depend on your compassion, they depend upon your determination, and they depend upon your efforts to rescue them from misery and servitude.

Today the United States is meeting the challenge head-on, by working to build support worldwide for efforts to address the issue, and to ensure that countries take real action to put an end to it. To combat this evil inside the United States, as I’ve mentioned, we are taking action with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which makes it a crime for any person to enter the United States, or for any citizen to travel abroad, for the purpose of sex tourism involving children. Under the PROTECT Act, the United States is also sanctioning governments who don’t take human trafficking seriously. The law also requires the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons office to submit an annual report, as I’ve mentioned, that ranks countries in three tiers according to how actively they fight trafficking. In all of this, the United States is determined, as President Bush said, "to show new energy in fighting back an old evil." President Bush has made this one of his top priorities; which is why he spoke out strongly against human trafficking during two speeches at the United Nations General Assembly—becoming the first U.S. president to address the issue on an international platform. The speech has been credited with helping to define trafficking in persons for countries still hesitating over how to approach the problem, which some nations confuse with issues of illegal migration, as we’ve discussed.

The fight against human trafficking requires a multi-faceted strategy. If we are going to win the fight against this new form of slavery, then nations, too, will need to form new and diverse partnerships. The U.S. State Department has—and will continue to—work extensively with governments on action plans for prevention, protection of victims, and prosecution.

An example: Congress in 2003 strengthened anti-trafficking legislation and provided more than $70 million in funding worldwide to end slavery. The U.S. is providing money around the world for :

• Rehabilitation and vocational training centers for victims
• Law enforcement training and legal reform assistance
• Information and awareness campaigns
• Training for migration officials, medical personnel and social workers

Another example: On July 9 of this year, the U.S. Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security and Attorney General established the Interagency Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center—the HSTC or “Center”—in Washington, D.C. The Center was created to achieve greater integration and effectiveness in U.S. law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic and other efforts to work with foreign governments to fight :

• Alien smuggling
• International criminal networks trafficking in persons
• Clandestine terrorist travel being supported by human smugglers and document providers

The Center will accomplish these goals by :

• Facilitating the broad dissemination of all-source information. The HTSC will serve as an information fusion center and clearinghouse for sharing tactical, operational and strategic intelligence.
• Preparing strategic assessments and threat analysis…on such topics as principal global smuggling and trafficking organizations, including strengths and vulnerabilities; progress in disrupting or dismantling smuggling organizations; pipelines, routes and methods; current trends, predictions and opportunities for action.
• Identifying issues for enhanced interagency coordination or attention.
• Coordinating select initiatives and providing support. This could include partnerships with governments to disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises; planning and monitoring certain operations with intelligence, enforcement and diplomatic dimensions; and supporting public outreach efforts.

This aggressive strategy has been echoed in the U.S. military. In late 2002, the United States Department of Defense started telling U.S. military commanders to implement a “zero tolerance” policy for human trafficking and prostitution, which may contribute to trafficking. The U.S. policy means that military commanders declare brothels and other establishments where prostitution or abuse of trafficked women take place “off limits.” Soldiers caught visiting such businesses could face punishment ranging from rank reduction to court martial.

The United States is not alone. For example, I want to salute what NATO is doing to address the issue and manage the security risks posed by trafficking in persons. It is getting its own house in order. I am encouraged that at a summit in Istanbul in June of this year, NATO leaders adopted a policy of “zero tolerance” for personnel associated with trafficking in persons, calling for operational NATO forces to work in concert with local authorities to combat this phenomenon. I am further encouraged that the initiative was approved by all 46 members of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council on June 16, 2004.

Through this new policy, NATO will develop specific provisions for NATO-led forces to support the efforts of local authorities to combat trafficking. NATO will develop methods to monitor progress on combating trafficking. In implementing this policy, the Alliance will work closely with local and international organizations that protect and house adult and child victims of trafficking. NATO will also work closely with the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (the OSCE), the International Organization for Migration (the IOM), and other multilateral organizations in this effort.

In addition, as part of this policy, NATO has declared that forces under its command and control are prohibited from engaging in, aiding, or facilitating either the trafficking of human beings or modern-day slavery. NATO will design and implement new anti-trafficking training courses for troops deploying to NATO-led operations. NATO is also establishing a confidential internal mechanism to report on violations of this new policy.

This is encouraging news, and a serious and strategic step forward in the fight against trafficking in persons.

I would now like to take a few minutes to discuss how I have sought to respond to this challenge on the front lines of our Embassy to the Holy See. I had two primary objectives: raise awareness of the issue, and get people and organizations involved. Soon after presenting my credentials to Pope John Paul II on September 13, 2001, I decided that as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, I could play a part in meeting this challenge. Beginning in May 2002, I approached the Holy See and secured their agreement to participate in an international conference dedicated to addressing the issue of trafficking in persons. The conference was attended by over 400 people from 35 different countries. The conference concluded by calling participants to action, so we turned our focus on ways to actively combat that problem. Working with the International Organization for Migration, we funded and developed a two-week training program specifically designed for women religious workers to provide them with anti-trafficking strategies and skills. The nuns in the first training session –which took place in Italy-- came from 8 countries of origin or destination, and subsequent training programs took place in Romania, Albania, and Nigeria.

Following this initiative, my Embassy approached the Holy See’s nuncios—or Ambassadors—stationed around the world to encourage them to work with counterpart American Embassies and local governments to join the fight against trafficking. The responses have been encouraging—many have written expressing their eagerness to join us in this fight, and some have taken up contact with our Embassies to explore collaboration. And in June of this year, in Rome, my Embassy sponsored yet another conference which brought together international experts in the field of human trafficking to discuss how churches, faith-based organizations, the media and others can contribute.

My Embassy’s efforts—and successes—have been both global in scope and affect. And the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See is staffed by only 18 personnel. Yes, even 18 people can loosen the grip of trafficking in persons. Imagine now what a highly-trained and motivated global NATO force could do to eradicate this scourge.

There can be no let up in the fight against trafficking in persons. We must continue to build on the efforts of governments, religious groups, private organizations, and courageous individuals. But we need more soldiers in this battle…civic leaders, lawyers, prosecutors, advocates, law enforcement officials, and certainly NATO peacekeepers. We each have a role to play in confronting this evil—because the battle is far from won, and it’s going to take all of us to do it. And if we all join the battle, we will all live better, fuller and freer lives. So will our descendants. To quote U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, "We fight trafficking in persons not just for the sake of the victims and potential victims of these crimes, we do it also for ourselves because we can't fully embrace our own dignity as human beings unless we champion the dignity of others."

I would like to close by quoting William Wilberforce, the great British anti-slavery crusader of the late 18th and early 19th century. Wilberforce suffered many setbacks and endured danger and ridicule, but would not give up in his quest for justice. In words that still echo with power today, Wilberforce argued in the British parliament:

Sir, when we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God? Sir, the nature and all the circumstances of this trade are now laid open to us;we can no longer plead ignorance, we can not evade it; it is now an object placed before us, we can not pass it; we may spurn it, we may kick it out of our way, but we can not turn aside so as to avoid seeing it; for it is brought now so directly before our eyes."

That is my hope for today, that we, like Wilberforce, will not turn aside from our responsibility to end slavery in our time.

Thank you.

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