SR0590 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0590 LRB095 20463 DRJ 48267 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, HR 3887, as introduced and passed with only two dissents in the U.S. House of Representatives, introduces a cohesive legal framework for fighting trafficking by combining and streamlining efforts against the international and domestic sale of human beings; and

WHEREAS, HR 3887 constitutionally targets the demand for international trafficking by directly addressing the networks that buy and sell women and children for commercial sexual exploitation; and

WHEREAS, HR 3887 removes a barrier to effective prosecutions against traffickers by making "force, fraud, and coercion" part of aggravated trafficking rather than a requirement for all convictions; and

WHEREAS, HR 3887 makes exporting sexual exploiters to other countries ("sex-tourism") as significant a crime as importing victims for sexual exploitation; and

WHEREAS, HR 3887, as drafted in and passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, will assist many victims of trafficking and the sex trade in Illinois; in Chicago alone, 16,000-25,000 women and girls are involved in prostitution every year; statewide, an estimated 6,500 youth are prostituted annually; this bill will enhance legal options on a federal level to help stem a significant piece of why so many women and children are forced into the sex trade in Chicago and Illinois: the pimps and traffickers; and

WHEREAS, Sixty-two percent of women and girls in prostitution in Illinois were first pimped out before they were 18; many adult women in Illinois are also trafficked and pimped by third parties who financially profit from keeping them in prostitution; the majority of these adult women would face violence if they did not give the money they make in the sex trade to these third parties; and

WHEREAS, Pimps and traffickers do not always use force, fraud or coercion to bring adult women into prostitution, but pimping and trafficking is always unlawful, and it is virtually always practiced on previously harmed, notably vulnerable and objectively disempowered women; and

WHEREAS, Seventy-five percent of women and girls in prostitution in Illinois are survivors of sexual assault - most of multiple rapes - and 66% are victims of incest; and

WHEREAS, Fifty percent of women and girls in prostitution are homeless; often, trading sex is the only means of survival for these women and girls; pimps and traffickers often exploit these economic hardships to maintain adults and children in prostitution; many traffickers and pimps profit from the commercial sexual exploitation-while the women and children trafficked remain poor; and

WHEREAS, Recognizing that trafficking is a serious and over-looked problem in Illinois, the General Assembly implemented Public Act 94-0009, the Trafficking of Persons and Involuntary Servitude Act; though a powerful first step in the fight against sex trafficking, state resources are limited and local prosecutors do not have the ability to research, uncover and prosecute domestic trafficking cases; many local traffickers are not held accountable and continue to prey upon victims in Illinois; HR 3887 will assist victims in Illinois by allowing federal resources to be used to prosecute local traffickers; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that Federal anti-trafficking laws should focus on the actions of people and businesses that prostitute others, not on the resistance level of victims; and be it further

RESOLVED, That prostituted women and children often appear to be in the industry by choice when they are anything but free; and be it further

RESOLVED, That lies about victim "willingness" to engage in the sex trade are now being used by pimps and traffickers to avoid accountability for modern day slavery and the sexual exploitation of the world's most vulnerable and harmed people, prominently women and children, but also boys, men, and transgendered individuals; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the U.S. House of Representatives and our Illinois Delegation are commended for their leadership in expanding federal anti-trafficking legislation so that it more accurately represents the experiences of victims in Illinois and expands the ability of federal prosecutors to bring domestic traffickers to justice; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Illinois State Senate supports HR 3887 as passed, and we urge our U.S. Senators to champion federal anti-trafficking legislation by supporting the passage of HR 3887, without modification, in the U.S. Senate; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be forwarded to United States Senators Richard J. Durbin and Barack Obama.