HI PEOPLES.
So. I'm sorry for the lateness of this post. Life is life is life is life. And the Olympics is also a big distraction... :)
I said I would write about the Child Protection Compact Act (CPCA), and I'm here to do just that.
"The Child Protection Compact Act will provide assistance to select “focus countries” through the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP). These focus countries will receive support in building public justice systems that effectively investigate crimes against children and prosecute perpetrators in numbers sufficient to deter and eventually eliminate the crime. The legislation also authorizes increased assistance for care for survivors of trafficking."
Um. Ok. So what does that mean? Alright, to start, the CPCA was introduced into congress in June of 2009 by Representatives Chris Smith (Republican from NJ) and Carolyn Maloney (Democrat from NY). (A collaboration between a democrat and a republican?! Who would have thought?) Essentially, its goal is to lessen human trafficking in specific countries. Human trafficking ranges from all kinds of wrongs committed against humans, but at its core it's simply modern day slavery. Children and women are often the biggest victims, since they're very vulnerable and often helpless. The specific wrong can consist of being forced into various lines of work such as agricultural labor, factory work, restaurant work, you name it. To learn more check out wikipedia (in all its brilliance). The CPCA is directly targeted at helping children, those under the age of 18.
In congress, a bill goes through these 6 steps:
Step 1: Introduction
Step 2: Referred to Committee
Step 3: Reported by Committee
Step 4: House Vote
Step 5: Senate Vote
Step 6: Signed by President
After the CPCA's initial step one (its introduction), it was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The bill is still being reviewed by this committee; it has not moved onto step three yet.
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1. "The purpose of the bill is to increase protection of vulnerable children in selected countries by providing assistance to address institutional weaknesses within governments." This means that the bill's aim is to improve legislation in certain countries in order to offer more protection to children who are at risk for being trafficked/who have been trafficked.
2. "The bill authorizes assistance to be administered by the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons for countries that meet certain eligibility criteria and enter into a Compact. The bill authorizes $50 million over three years for this purpose." SO the bill has 50 million bucks (!!) to make these improvements in legislation that are referred to above.
3. "Countries are selected on the basis of demonstrated political will by the government to confront child trafficking, including by enactment and enforcement of law, cooperation with local and international NGOs, and treatment of victims in accordance with international standards." In other words: the bill is looking for countries who agree to accept help in improving the conditions. Many countries do not want to make this big step, so the US is ensuring that the countries they move to help (with the $50 million) are actually willing to undergo serious reform to help children.
4. "The compact is an agreement between the U.S. and the eligible country that contains specific objectives in a “national child protection strategy” and indicates benchmarks for measuring the achievement of them." Before doing anything within a country, the US will sit down with the partner country and create precise and clear goals to ensure that things get better instead of staying the same or getting worse.
5. "The executive branch shall consult with Congress prior to negotiating a compact with a country and shall notify Congress after entering into such compact. In addition, not later than 180 days after enactment and annually thereafter, the President shall submit a report on the achievement of objectives for each country for which a Compact has been negotiated." The executive branch (aka the president & co.) will meet with Congress before having any agreement with a country. After, the President report on the "precise and clear goals" stated above.
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Out of the 535 Senators and Congressmen, 91 have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. That leaves 443 Senators and Congressmen who do not officially support the bill. Sometimes this means they don't know enough about it; sometimes this means they don't agree with it; sometimes this means they think this isn't what their constituents care about.
I was able to hear Jesse Eaves from World Vision speak about the CPCA. He said that the most effective way to express a community's interest to Senators and Congressmen is 10 phone calls/10 letters into the representatives' offices shows; this shows that the people they're representing think that this issue is important. And after all, those Representatives are there to represent their people, so if this emerges as an issue among constituents, those Representatives will be listening.
Yes, I know a lot of us can't vote, but I can't imagine what it would look like for a bunch of young people--who can't even vote--to show their passion for an issue. It would be beastly in the least.
If you can vote, and you feel like this is something you'd like to support, you can let your Representatives know by calling their office or writing a letter and letting them know that you, as a voter, support this bill.
If you can't vote, you can still contact your representatives to let them know that this is an important issue for you--even as someone who can't vote. Remember, the children being protected in this bill are those under 18, just like you (and me!).
If you decide you'd like to make contact, but you're not sure who your representatives are, first you can check here to see who your Senators are and here to see who your Congressmen are; second you can check here to see if these representatives are already co-sponsors of the CPCA. If so, you can reaffirm them by thanking them, or encourage those whose representatives aren't on the bill to contact their representatives. If not, go ahead and make contact!
If you do decide to call, here's a telephone script for VOTERS, so you don't sound like a fool (ha-ha...):
Hello. My name is ________ and I am from __________.
As a constituent, I'm calling to ask Representative _______________ to co-sponsor H.R. 2737, the Child Protection Compact Act. This bill will help countries protect children from trafficking and exploitation and prosecute those who abuse children.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(Do not laugh at me.)
If it turns out that, like me, you cannot vote, go ahead and call! You can say you're a "future constituent" who's calling to let your representative know that you care about this.
Well, I guess that's about it. If you have any questions, leave a comment chastising me for my failure to fully explain. Or you can email me. Or Facebook me. Or call me. Or stalk me. Preferably not the last one.
I just think it would be really awesome if a bunch of people who can't even vote took initiative to express their passion and intelligence and awesomeness, encouraging people who can vote to get on the ball!
Well. I'm off to watch some ice dancing. Whatever that is.
--Camille & Calvinski
Big thanks to the following sites:
- www.worldvision.org
- www.ijm.org
- www.govtrack.us
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