2007年VOA标准英语-Activists Urge New York State to Pass Anti-Huma

By Carolyn Weaver¹
New York
09 February 2007
 
watch Human Trafficking report

A coalition² of women's and human-rights advocates in the United States is pressing New York state legislators to pass a law against human trafficking. Investigators³ say that traffickers prey⁴ on the poor and young in all parts of the world, including East Asia, Africa, the former Soviet⁵ Union, Latin America and the United States, where they say New York City is a major port of entry – both for victims trafficked inside the United States and those brought from other countries.

 
Feminist⁶ leader Gloria Steinem chairs the anti-trafficking coalition
A group of activists⁷ say they will protest every week in New York City outside the New York State Supreme⁸ Court, until state legislators pass a strong law against human trafficking. “What we need today are modern-day abolitionists,” feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem, who chairs the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, told the crowd of demonstrators at the first protest. Steinem noted⁹ that international organizations estimate that four to 12 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking, including women and children trafficked for sex, and people of all ages used as forced labor¹⁰. 

"Trafficking in people is bigger than it's ever been,” Steinem told a reporter. “Slavery is bigger now than it was in the 1800s, and more profitable. The estimated profits from it are bigger than that from the illegal arms trade. Because of globalization, the Internet, the increased inequity between nations, and between rich and poor, ease of travel -- all of those things have made slavery much easier, more profitable, and much more prevalent."

The anti-trafficking coalition says the federal law against trafficking doesn't help many victims, because authorities prosecute¹¹ only the biggest cases. The activists say that most police lack the training to recognize that women arrested as prostitutes, for example, may be trafficking victims. And they say that rape¹² and kidnapping laws do not address the circumstances of human trafficking.

“Sexual assault law is not enough,” Steinem said. “How can you say to a woman who has been kept prisoner for a year, 'Can you prove that you were raped¹³ under threat of force by your last customer, and by all your customers?' The laws are just not adequate. You need specific protocols¹⁴ and behaviors so that the law enforcement officials know what to do, know that this is not somebody to be arrested as a criminal, but somebody to be rescued as a survivor¹⁵ of human trafficking."

 
Kika Cerpa, a survivor of human trafficking 
Kika Cerpa is one of the few victims of sex traffickers who has spoken about her experience. She says she came to New York from Venezuela at age 19, with a boyfriend who promised her a good job. Once here, though, she says, he and a woman confederate took her passport and forced her to work in a brothel in the borough¹⁶ of Queens. She was there for three years.

“I didn't know what to do, who to talk [to], I didn't speak English, I didn't know what to say,” Cerpa, now 34, recalled in an interview at the New York offices of Equality Now, a women’s rights group. “And another thing, when I was working, I was arrested, and I was pleaded guilty. The police never asked me how you ended up here, why are you doing this?"

When police raided the brothel, in fact, the women were charged as prostitutes, and represented in court by the brothel owner's lawyer. Even when Cerpa testified about the murder of another woman in the brothel, her friend Annie, who was killed by a client she had refused, no one realized that they were both trafficking victims.

"After you get in, there's no way to get out,” she said. “You cannot communicate with people, you are afraid to talk to people. You know every time I go outside, I'm afraid everybody recognize me so I live like a hiding-life, for all these three years. I didn't talk to anybody, I didn't have friends. Only the people who were in the situation with me. And when my friend Annie died, when she was killed, I realized that's going to happen to me, too."

After three years, Kika Cerpa managed to escape from the brothel. She is working a regular job now, and raising her young children, the kind of life she dreamed of when she was growing up poor in Venezuela. But she says her years as a virtual captive have marked her forever, and that when she returns to Queens, she sees the same brothels continuing to operate unimpeded. She and other activists hope that New York will soon join 21 other U.S. states that have passed laws against human trafficking.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

12 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

13 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

14 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

15 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

16 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。