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Shared Hope International News Release
June 7, 2002
Contact: Karrie Delaney
Director of Communications
Tel: 703.351.8062
Karrie@sharedhope.org
Shared Hope International Submits Testimony to the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus Hearing on Trafficking in Children
The Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing Thursday, June 6, on "Trafficking In Children." At the request of Chairman Tom Lantos and Chairman Frank Wolf, Former Congresswoman Linda Smith, President and founder of Shared Hope International, presented written testimony on the status of child trafficking victims in India and Nepal.
Since leaving Congress in 1999, Linda Smith has opened 19 homes in three countries-India, Nepal, and Jamaica- that serve as places of refuge and restoration for victims of human trafficking. Most of the individuals served were sold by their parents or stolen by traffickers and forced to work in brothels. Many were children as young as 8 years old when they were trafficked into sexual slavery. (The story of Ganga, a girl sold at a young age, is attached.)
On Wednesday June 5, 2002, the U.S. Department of State issued the Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report, which was newly mandated by Congressman Chris Smith's legislation, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000.
Linda Smith commended the State Department for the timely and comprehensive report but expressed concern over the decision to place India and Nepal in a tier 2 rating. In light of her work to provide refuge and restoration for hundreds of trafficking victims in Nepal and India, Smith stated:
"In the three countries where Shared Hope is working, we have seen no significant evidence of positive or effective government action to curb the trafficking problem. There have been very few prosecutions of traffickers in India and Nepal. There has been very little work done to change what we see as continued tolerance for children being used and abused. There has been very little done to inform and educate women about the dangers of trafficking or to provide legal safeguards for women."
Smith's recommendations on the TIP report include "evaluations of each country's progress needs to be based on arrests and prosecutions of those from all social and economic levels." Smith also urges for the report to have a greater emphasis on the selling and victimization of children, requiring countries to show evidence of prosecuting child traffickers.
Smith states that "While India and Nepal have made steps to improve, the steps are not significant enough to merit a tier 2 rating. We want to continue to shine a bright light on countries where human trafficking is still rampant…the trafficking bill will not be an effective tool for change unless we tell the truth about what is really going on in countries where we know human trafficking is a problem."
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