Sen. Bob Corker took over the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the international order exploded into a cascade of crises: Ukraine, the Islamic State, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Ebola virus and more.
Still, the Tennessee senator and former mayor of Chattanooga has found time to organize a bipartisan effort to put another issue on the table: ending slavery.
Corker worked with activists, committee Democrats and the Obama administration to fast-track bipartisan legislation that would put the weight of the United States behind a public-private partnership aimed at ending the practice — and in the process serve as a possible model for future foreign aid programs. The panel approved the legislation on Feb. 26by voice vote, sending it to the Senate floor, where Corker expects it to pass “very soon.”
Corker said he also expects the legislation to easily pass the House and be signed by President Obama.
“This is going to make a big difference in the lives of many people,” he told reporters in a conference call, adding that he was gratified to be able to work on legislation that could bring together bipartisan support to solve a serious problem amid so many other crises.
“I think Democrats and Republicans will speak with one voice on this vital issue,” Corker’s Democratic partner in the effort, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said at a Feb. 24 news conference announcing the bill.
Though the practice is illegal worldwide, slavery persists. An estimated 27 million people globally are caught in the illicit slave trade. Some of the world’s worst practitioners flourish in countries allied with the United States, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, because of an atmosphere of impunity.
The problem encompasses forced labor, which has proved embarrassing for U.S. corporations when some of their suppliers are caught using the practice, and sexual slavery.
“Number one, slavery is as brutal as ever. Number two, it’s more vast than ever, but thirdly, it’s more stoppable than ever,” Gary Haugen, founder and president of the International Justice Mission, a human-rights advocacy group, told Corker’s committee at a Feb. 4 hearing. Haugen emphasized the need to improve local law enforcement as a deterrent to human traffickers who thrive in communities that tolerate the practice.
“We’ve measured trafficking fall off by more than 80 percent and even higher in larger populations when impunity ended,” Haugen added.
Modern slavery even persists in the United States, where an estimated 14,000 people are brought into forced labor from abroad every year.
Take the case of Shandra Woworuntu, an Indonesian woman who told Corker’s committee on Feb. 4 that she had escaped from being forced into the sex trade after answering a recruiter’s ad for a job in a Chicago hotel about 15 years ago.
“I encounter men and women from all over the world who have experienced human trafficking insome form. They are from different nations, cultures and backgrounds, but many have one thingin common: they were brought here by a seemingly reputable recruiting agency,” said Woworuntu, founder ofMentari, a New York organization that helps survivors of human trafficking.
The legislation by Corker and Menendez, the panel’s ranking Democrat, would establish the End Modern Slavery Initiative Foundation as a public-private partnership that can fund global efforts to liberate victims of modern slavery, prevent others from being victimized and promote greater enforcement of laws against slavery.
The initiative would seek to raise $1.5 billion over seven years, of which $250 million would come from State Department funding on the condition that it be matched by $500 million from foreign governments and $750 million from the private sector. The United States would provide diplomatic support, law enforcement and rule-of-law assistance and economic development aid to the effort.
The bill also contains a provision that programs funded by the initiative achieve a measurable 50 percent reduction in slavery in target populations or lose funding.
“There is significant buy-in … we think this is something that will be funded,” Corker said.
When asked whether he was concerned about corporate opposition to the bill, he replied: “I just can’t imagine a responsible corporation lobbying against a bill whose goal is to end modern slavery.”
Activists had lobbied for a public-private partnership as a way of leveraging scarce resources, raising awareness of modern slavery and achieving real change.
“There’s a real emphasis on a model that actually has measurable outcomes,” said Holly Burkhalter, the International Justice Mission’s vice president of government relations and advocacy. “I think it’s just exactly what the antislavery movement needs.”
Corker said he hopes the legislation would also have the added bonus of serving as a model for future foreign aid programs, especially in the way it engages the private sector in the effort and requires measurable proof of results.
“I think we’re getting ready to have a profound impact on people,” he said.
