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House Committee Approves Legislation Urging German Gov’t to Combat Trafficking of Women at World Cup |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the World Cup soccer championship advances to the quarterfinal round this week, a powerful congressional committee in Washington took a decisive step of its own and approved legislation urging the Government of Germany, host of the games, to do more to combat sexual trafficking of women in connection with the influx of athletes and fans in Germany for the soccer tournament. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), author of the legislation (H.Res 860) and Vice-Chairman of the House International Relations Committee said, “There is an inherent contradiction in Smith’s resolution, H. Res. 860, comes as millions of fans are attending the World Cup soccer matches in “The resolution, supported unanimously by Republicans and Democrats alike on the International Relations Committee, is a clear call to the German government to denounce the practices of human trafficking and prostitution, and to do everything in its power to combat the exploitation of women and children,” said Smith, who is the author of the landmark US law to combat human trafficking and two subsequent laws enhancing law enforcement tools to combat trafficking and to increase services for the victims. “Pimping and maintaining brothels provide a façade behind which sex traffickers can hide and operate,” he said. “Because Germany has legalized prostitution, cities hosting World Cup games and so-called ‘business people’ are free to accommodate this degrading trade in women by constructing brothels and ‘sex huts,’ or issue permits for street prostitution, thereby creating a virtual partnership with brothel owners, pimps and traffickers.” As chairman of the "Legalized prostitution is not a policy that the German Government has to embrace. Germany can, and must, do much more to prevent the sexual exploitation of women and children by attacking the demand that fuels this problem." The Smith resolution calls on the German government to take additional steps to combat sex trafficking and to take measures to discourage the demand that fosters exploitation. H. Res. 860 also encourages countries throughout “Our message may be getting through,” Smith said. “A June 23rd report on the Reuters wire indicates that ‘men who have descended on “Let’s hope that’s the case” Smith said “and fewer women are being victimized.” | ||
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For Immediate Release: June 27, 2006 Contact: Ryan Goodwin (202) 225-3765 |
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