Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA)

18 U.S.C. § 1595 et. seq.

 

In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (Pub. L. No. 108-193, § 4(a)(4)(A)), a statute addressing labor and sex trafficking at the federal level. In 2003, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) added a private cause of action to the law, permitting certain victims to sue their traffickers under 28 U.S.C. §1595. A reauthorization five years later expanded the cause of action to all recognized trafficking offenses. Corporations can be held criminally liable for financially benefitting from forced labor or sex trafficking, even when the illegal activities take place abroad. Corporations are also subject to civil liability under the TVPRA for negligence towards forced labor in their supply chains. The human rights and corporate accountability community can use the TVPRA to address corporate use of forced labor in the United States and abroad.