The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

United States has submitted annual Trafficking in Persons Reports to the United States Congresson foreign governments’ efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. The 2008Report assessed the efforts of 170 countries to combat trafficking in persons, including theirgovernment’s efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and prevent the crime. Agovernment that fails to make significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimumstandards for eliminating trafficking, as established in the TVPA, receives a “Tier 3” assessmentin the Report. Such an assessment may trigger the withholding of U.S. non-humanitarian, nontrade-relatedforeign assistance to that country. The TIP Report has also added greater emphasison foreign government’s efforts to combat demand and exploitation of children overseas by itscitizens. Based on the minimum standards for fighting child sexual exploitation constitutingtrafficking in persons, it has been a useful vehicle to encourage other nations to adoptextraterritorial laws which allow for the prosecution of its citizens for victimizing children whenengaging in sex tourism in other countries just as the United States enacted in the form of thePROTECT Act in 2003.In 2007, the United States actively promoted the issue of confronting commercial sexualexploitation of children in multilateral fora. For the United Nations’ annual Commission onCrime Prevention and Criminal Justice (“Crime Commission”), the United States successfullypushed for the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children to be one of two Commissionthemes. The United States introduced a resolution that was subsequently adopted titled: EffectiveCrime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses to Combat Sexual Exploitation of Children.During the Crime Commission, the U.S. delegation also co-hosted a successful event forrepresentatives of member states that included screening of the movie Human Trafficking and anexpert panel discussion on child trafficking. The Department’s CEOS and OIA worked closelywith the Department of State on these efforts.The G-8 Lyon-Roma Group finalized two U.S.-drafted documents in 2007 related to commercialsexual exploitation of children. The first document was a Justice and Home Affairs Ministers’statement Reinforcing the International Fight Against Child Pornography. All eight countriesendorsed this document, which emphasizes the importance of having strong legislation againstchild pornography in all countries. The second document addressed Experience in theImplementation of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction for Sex Crimes. This document discusses thegrowing problem of international sex tourism and the need to be able to prosecute citizens intheir home country for the sex crimes they commit against children abroad. CEOS and theDepartment of State collaborated on these efforts.Also in 2007, the U.S. Department of State served as chair of the Regional Conference onMigration (RCM), an organization composed of Central and North American immigration andpolicy officials. Trafficking in persons was the theme of the 2007 ministerial meeting in NewOrleans. At this meeting, the United States worked in tandem with other member countries toadopt a non-binding document “Regional Guidelines for Special Protection in Cases of theRepatriation of Child Victims of Trafficking.” Through the RCM, ICE, and U.S. Customs andBorder Protection (CBP) organized a training workshop on trafficking in persons and smugglingthat included presentations by RCM members Honduras, Mexico, Canada, and El Salvador.Additionally, CEOS, NCMEC, FBI, and ICE helped to develop and implement the first-everINHOPE International Law Enforcement Coordination Conference held in Helsinki, Finland, in102