[Shadow_Group] ] Donna Hughes testimony hurts children

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>
> http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=McKelvey+V15+I11<http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=McKelvey+V15+I11>
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>
> Of Human Bondage
> A coalition against human trafficking worked well until a prostitution 
> litmus test was imposed.
>                                  By   Tara McKelvey
>                                          Issue Date: 11.01.04
>
>
>
>  On August 6, Christina Arnold found herself in Svay Pak, Cambodia, an 
> area full of wooden shacks, bars, and brothels 11 kilometers from the 
> capital city of Phnom Penh. Arnold, the 29-year-old director of Project 
> Hope International, a nonprofit organization committed to assisting 
> survivors of human trafficking, had traveled there to visit with social 
> workers, health-care workers, and others who help prostitutes. Its 
> exhausting and grim work; many of the prostitutes are children (as young 
> as 6) servicing Western tourists who hang out at the Home Away from Home 
> caf and prowl the area for small-small, as the young girls are known.
>
> For years, the health-care educators and social workers had worked closely 
> with the children, who are living by hook or by crook, doing tricks, says 
> Arnold. They tried to teach the girls how to care for themselves. They 
> would tell the children, You will get out of this. Theres a way out, says 
> Arnold. In the meantime, heres how to use a condom.
>
> But that was before University of Rhode Island professor Donna Hughes 
> started accusing nongovernmental organizations of teaching children how to 
> be prostitutes. On April 3, 2003, she testified before the Senate Foreign 
> Relations Committee, saying, It is unacceptable to provide medical 
> services and condoms to enslaved people and ignore the slavery.
>
> Her words had a chilling affect on health-care workers in Svay Pak. We 
> were standing on a muddy street, talking to a woman who works for one of 
> these organizations, says Arnold. We asked, So youre not able to deal with 
> children? No, not at all, she said. Unless we want to get shut down. She 
> looked very upset, and she was holding her face in her hands. The children 
> there are very confused. NGO workers told us pedophiles now know they can 
> go and have unprotected sex with children because the health-education 
> programs have stopped. Arnold paused, then added, And when children come 
> to the NGO workers and ask for help, they are being turned away.
>
> The woman Arnold spoke with has already lost some funding, and her 
> situation could become even more precarious. Three days before Arnold 
> spoke with her, the U.S. Agency for International Developments Office of 
> Acquisition and Assistance issued new guidelines, which took effect 
> immediately, for international organizations that receive federal funds to 
> fight the trade in human trafficking, a problem that has exploded in the 
> last 10 years. The organizations are not allowed to promote, support, or 
> advocate for the legalization or practice of prostitution.
>
> On its face, this proposition does not sound as if it should be 
> controversial. But the regulatory change has sparked an intense debate 
> within the coalition of groups -- left, right, and nonpartisan -- that has 
> been working together since 1998 to fight human trafficking. Some, like 
> Arnold, believe the change prevents groups from doing any outreach at all 
> that will help girls trapped in prostitution. Others see the change as a 
> sop to the religious right, which has taken an undoubtedly sincere 
> interest in the problems of trafficking and slavery, but which, to 
> critics, is creating a rift in a coalition that was working smoothly by 
> imposing its value system in a manner thats alienating groups that used to 
> get along -- and that isnt necessarily helping the women its designed to 
> help.
>
> How you feel about prostitution, say program officers, field workers, and 
> human-rights advocates, has become a litmus test for the Bush 
> administration. If you dont have the right views, youre not going to get 
> any money. Or, as one person who works for an NGO describes the new 
> policy, in a phrase that might have a familiar ring to students of the 
> administrations anti-terrorism rhetoric, Youre either with us or youre 
> against us.
>
> * * *
>
> Sitting in a corner office at 18th and G streets in Washington, D.C., John 
> R. Miller, 66, a dapper man in a crisp suit and navy suspenders who is 
> director of the U.S. State Departments Office to Monitor and Combat 
> Trafficking in Persons, waves his hand in the air and swoops in so close 
> when he talks that you can feel his breath on your skin. His office is 
> large and comfortable, filled with chairs upholstered in royal blue, an 
> American flag, and a framed red-and-white Solidarnosc poster given to him 
> by a Polish friend.
>
> There are plenty of Americans who still say, Slavery? Didnt that end with 
> the American Civil War? says Miller, a former Republican representative 
> from Washington state, explaining how he has worked hard to raise 
> awareness of human trafficking since he joined the State Department in 
> December 2002.
>
> As he talks, he picks up a glossy edition of the Trafficking in Persons 
> Report, issued on June 14, and flips through the pages. As the report 
> explains, 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children -- roughly half 
> under the age of 18, according to estimates -- are trafficked each year 
> across national borders. Theyre forced to work for little or no pay in 
> places like Indias brick kilns, Colombias army barracks, and Cambodias 
> bordellos.
>
> The problem of human trafficking has existed since, well, forever. But it 
> ballooned in the 1990s after the crumbling of the Soviet Union. At the 
> time, borders became more porous in central Europe, and the trade in 
> humans boomed. These days, human trafficking follows roughly the same 
> routes as weapons and narcotics.
>
> Left unchecked, human trafficking will become the most lucrative of the 
> three criminal industries within 10 years, Deputy Secretary of State 
> Richard Armitage said at a trafficking conference in February 2003. 
> Profits flow to the people who smuggle women across borders and to those 
> who press them into servitude. It can be more lucrative than narcotics: If 
> youre a dealer, you can only sell a bag of cocaine once; if youre a pimp, 
> you can peddle your wares over and over again.
>
> The annual State Department report, which first appeared after the passage 
> of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, evaluates how 
> effectively 140 different countries are fighting trafficking, prosecuting 
> criminals, and supporting programs that protect victims. Cuba and North 
> Korea are in Tier 3, which means the United States may withhold 
> nonhumanitarian assistance until they get their acts together. (The United 
> States is not ranked in this report.)
>
> Besides publishing an expanded edition of the report, Miller has overseen 
> an increase in the percentage of faith-based organizations that receive 
> funding (from 7 percent in 2002, according to Caroline Tetschner, a State 
> Department spokeswoman, to 22 percent in 2003); made sure funding is 
> denied to international organizations that do not follow strict guidelines 
> in opposing prostitution; and encouraged changes in the Uniform Code of 
> Military Justice, which will soon forbid military personnel from 
> patronizing prostitutes.
>
> Overall, the Bush administration has devoted more than $295 million in 
> anti-trafficking program assistance in more than 120 countries, according 
> to the State Department. More than 2,800 people around the world have been 
> convicted of trafficking-related crimes in the past three years, and 24 
> countries have enacted new anti-trafficking legislation. One of George W. 
> Bushs favorite U.S. programs is the International Justice Mission (IJM), 
> which is run by Gary Haugen, 41, author of Good News About Injustice, and 
> Sharon Cohn, 34, the organizations vice president of interventions, who 
> has overseen brothel raids in Cambodia.
>
> * * *
>
> Its impressive stuff. But human-rights activists, program officers, and 
> health-care educators who work to help trafficking victims describe a dark 
> side to the abolitionist movement. The movements most prominent figures 
> include right-wing policy-makers, a Jewish moral entrepreneur, and 
> evangelical leaders, whom critics call overzealous and moralistic. 
> Together, the abolitionists have formed a potent political force (Its the 
> most powerful coalition for human rights in America today -- perhaps in 
> the world -- all under the radar screen of the press, says one of its 
> adherents) known for steamrolling opponents and stifling dissenting 
> voices. Some say theyre even snuffing out organizations that dont adhere 
> to a party line regarding prostitution.
>
> Organizations are denied funds if they refuse to sign a loyalty oath, as 
> one senior officer with an NGO describes a new clause on federal-aid 
> contracts that require grant recipients to say they oppose prostitution.
>
> In addition, Bushs most celebrated programs, including the IJM, are 
> scorned by anti-trafficking activists in places where they operate. A 
> brothel raid led by the IJM last May in Thailand resulted in the freeing 
> of 29 women. But the women were arrested, and to some, it didnt feel much 
> like freedom. The women became very annoyed when told they had been 
> rescued, say the authors of a Shan Womens Action Network report. They 
> said, How can you say this is a rescue when we were arrested?
>
> And though the particular fates of these 29 women are unclear, experts say 
> its often the case that when prostitutes -- many of whom come from the 
> notorious Shan State in Burma (now officially called Myanmar), where 
> systematic rape and human-rights abuses are common -- are freed from Thai 
> brothels, they end up in a worse situation. Legally, these women cannot 
> claim refugee status in Thailand. After rescue, their situation will be 
> made known to Burmese authorities, local village officials and family 
> members, according to the report. Under these circumstances, a safe and 
> beneficial return home is impossible.
>
> For Cohn, the important thing is freeing women and children from bondage. 
> She speaks convincingly about the horrors of being serially raped, 
> especially if youre a 6-year-old child. And shes proud of the fact that, 
> so far in 2004, the IJM has saved 152 victims of child sexual exploitation 
> and trafficking. IJM officers try to follow up with the women and children 
> theyve saved and make sure theyre OK, she says.
>
> Regarding the Thailand episode, Cohn says: Its probably safe to say we 
> have a different perspective of the raid. Seven underage girls were 
> rescued. If theres even one girl, shed still have the right not to be 
> raped day and night.
>
> Miller has run into opposition not just from the usual suspects among 
> on-the-ground advocates from NGOs. People within the State, Justice, and 
> other departments have become incensed. Recently, Miller has expanded his 
> reach to the Department of Defense, which will change its military code so 
> soldiers can be court-martialed for visiting a prostitute.
>
> And there have been minor diplomatic dustups. The Trafficking in Persons 
> Report contained a case study of a 15-year-old Thai girl taken to Tokyo 
> and raped in a karaoke bar. The report concealed the girls real name and 
> called her Sirikit. As it turns out, Sirikit is the name of a venerated 
> Thai queen, and it wasnt pleasant when news of this goof reached the Thai 
> press. Oh, my gosh, it was terrible, says Miller, nearly climbing out of 
> his chair. Its embarrassing. We had to send them an apology.
>
> On a more serious level, people whove met Miller and worked with his staff 
> say hes created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Some people have 
> suffered recriminations, been blacklisted, or lost their funds. Yet 
> according to several sources, none of whom was at all willing to speak on 
> the record, Miller isnt even the kingpin.
>
> * * *
>
> The muscle guy in the abolitionist movement is Michael Horowitz, 66. A 
> Jewish kid from the Bronx who went to City College and then to Yale Law 
> School, Horowitz served as general counsel for the Office of Management 
> and Budget under Ronald Reagan, and is now a senior fellow at the Hudson 
> Institute in Washington. Referred to by author Allen Hertzke as a moral 
> entrepreneur in Hertzkes newly published book, Freeing Gods Children, 
> Horowitz is the one, activists and program officers say, who calls the 
> shots.
>
> The other leading figures are Charles Colson, a former Nixon counsel and 
> an influential evangelical leader; Donna Hughes, the University of Rhode 
> Island professor whose congressional testimony helped lay the groundwork 
> for the August 2004 change in federal contracts and who writes articles on 
> the subject for the National Review; Laura Lederer, a former 
> anti-pornography crusader; and Lisa Thompson, a trafficking specialist 
> with the Salvation Army. Horowitz is the Charlie to their Angels, says an 
> administration official.
>
> Last year, Horowitz, Colson, and others decided to oust Millers 
> predecessor, Nancy Ely-Raphael. She was an apparatchik, says Horowitz. She 
> was just a nice Ferragamo-wearing lady, counters a former Republican 
> staffer on the Hill.
>
> Regardless of Ely-Raphaels taste in shoes, Horowitz, Colson, and other 
> evangelical leaders told the White House to dump her. They wanted to 
> install Miller -- even though Karl Rove didnt like him, according to a 
> private e-mail footnoted in the Hertzke book. Rove objected to Miller 
> because hed supported John McCain in 2000.
>
> In a show of strength, Horowitz and Colson prevailed over Rove, who 
> allowed them to anoint Miller as director of what would soon become the 
> abolitionist outpost in the State Department. These days, Miller is in 
> close contact with speechwriter Michael Gerson and others in the White 
> House. Theyve told me how concerned he [Bush] is about this issue, and 
> they call me up a lot, says Miller.
>
> And, apparently, they take notes. In Bushs September 23, 2003, speech at 
> the United Nations, says Miller, he spent 20 percent of his speech on 
> trafficking. Bush talked about trafficking on the campaign trail on July 
> 16 in Tampa, Florida, and again at the UN on September 21. Bushs focus on 
> trafficking is a victory for Horowitz and evangelical leaders in their 
> efforts to influence U.S. foreign policy.
>
> Its the second act in what is a seven- or eight-act play, says Horowitz.
>
> The dramatic arc of the play, at least according to Horowitz, includes the 
> International Religious Freedom Act of 1998; the Sudan Peace Act of 2002; 
> the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004, which has been passed by 
> Congress; and an upcoming bill that will alter foreign policy so its main 
> objective will be the collapse of dictatorship through peaceful means and 
> the promotion of democracy, he explains.
>
> In terms of scope, financial resources, and the presidents attention, 
> though, the anti-trafficking initiative may be the abolitionists crowning 
> achievement. The campaign took off in January 1998, when Horowitz began to 
> forge bonds with evangelical leaders like Colson and feminists such as 
> Gloria Steinem and Jessica Neuwirth of Equality Now. They all worked 
> together on a global campaign to fight trafficking and, along with it, 
> prostitution.
>
> The abolitionists truly believe all prostitution is trafficking, and if a 
> woman says she did enter it voluntarily, shes mistaken. Its the conflating 
> of trafficking and prostitution, says Martina Vandenberg, an attorney with 
> the Washington law firm Jenner & Block and a former Human Rights Watch 
> researcher.
>
> Many people -- not only evangelicals and Equality Now feminists -- think 
> prostitution should be eradicated. Selling your body is a lousy job. And 
> no amount of ergonomic mattresses and minimum-wage standards, as Horowitz 
> says, are going to make it better. For them, AIDS is an occupational 
> hazard. Eighty percent suffer violence-related injuries, according to a 
> 2002 study cited in Violence Against Women. And in a recent mortality 
> study of 1,600 women in the United States, published in the American 
> Journal of Epidemiology, murder accounts for 50 percent of prostitute 
> deaths.
>
> Partly because of the efforts of the abolitionists, the Trafficking 
> Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 stipulates that 
> international organizations receiving funds cannot support prostitution in 
> any way. Its a refined version of the previous bill. The new one includes 
> specific language about prostitution and federal funds. As with most 
> bureaucratic moves, though, the changes took awhile to kick in. This past 
> summer, the official requirements of the act -- and the realities of what 
> the Bush administration is trying to achieve -- started to appear in 
> contracts required for international organizations that receive federal 
> funds.
>
> Even NGO officials who stop short of complaining about a loyalty oath 
> argue that the act hinders their ability to do their work. Right now, the 
> administration policy is to require foreign organizations to have an 
> explicit policy opposing prostitution, says Cara Thanassi, senior 
> legislative adviser of CARE USA. Were concerned it limits our ability to 
> carry out HIV/AIDS and other programs with prostitutes.
>
> Some groups have lost funding. We fell victim to it, says Layli 
> Miller-Muro, executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center, a 
> Virginia-based organization that, among other activities, provides legal 
> services to trafficking victims. We were denied a grant to help women in 
> India on that basis. They told us that flat out. I happen to be a 
> religious person. I hold moral views. But its not relevant to helping 
> victims. The policy against prostitution is a distraction.
>
> * * *
>
> The Bush administration has done some good work, raising awareness of the 
> issue and passing new laws, including one -- the PROTECT Act -- that 
> allows U.S. law-enforcement officers to prosecute Americans whove traveled 
> abroad to sexually abuse children. Newly funded programs like the IJM 
> have, literally, saved women and children from hell. But emphasizing 
> victim rescues -- and vilifying those who try to work with prostitutes -- 
> have unintended consequences. Some of the liberated women have suffered in 
> the aftermath. And many anti-trafficking leaders have been shunned because 
> theyve refused to sign a contract that supports the Bush administrations 
> position.
>
> We would like to discourage the U.S. government from using its foreign 
> policy to undermine and curtail freedom of expression, says LaShawn 
> Jefferson, an executive director at Human Rights Watch. This is being used 
> as a tool of silencing people.
>
>
>  Copyright  2004 by The American Prospect, Inc. Preferred Citation: Tara 
> McKelvey, "Of Human Bondage", The American Prospect, Gods Plan?, November 
> 2004 This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for 
> compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author. 
> Direct questions about permissions to permissions at prospect.org<mailto:permissions at prospect.org>.
>
>

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