By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 26, 2006; A19

Singer and actor Ricky Martin will make his congressional debut today, and "the adrenaline will be there," he says. "It's a fantastic moment for our mission."

Martin, Latin pop star and U.N. goodwill ambassador, will speak to the House Committee on International Relations as part of his campaign for better laws and more money to combat global trafficking in people, especially children.

Spreading charisma around the Washington Post newsroom yesterday, Martin's visit highlighted his ambivalent approach to the media. Part of his efforts focus on the child pornography and ensnarement rife on the Internet and in the come-ons of traffickers who promise to make children into models and pop stars. But without the media, he said, the problem no nation wants to acknowledge remains hidden. "If they just talk about it," he said of the reporters who cover his testimony, he will leave Washington happy. "We need your voice."

Martin, 34, presides over the Ricky Martin Foundation, which targets the highly organized multibillion-dollar trade in children with educational programs and advocacy. The group was started in Martin's native Puerto Rico, and its efforts have included a call-in rescue hotline and a street-poster campaign in Colombia that asks children at risk of capture by traffickers, "Do you know where you are going?" Since May, 10 girls have been rescued from traffickers.

Martin plans to ask Congress to expand federally funded initiatives aimed at Internet crimes against children. He also wants the State Department to establish a child-trafficking section in its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which documents human trafficking worldwide.

Last year, Congress reauthorized the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. Since 2001, Martin says, the federal government has given $375 million to foreign governments and nongovernmental organizations to combat the problem.

Martin would like to see the United States back an international law raising the age of adulthood, which he says is as low as 12 in some countries. He also wants stronger identification laws for children. "Half the children born today are not registered," he said. "A child without identification is invisible."

Martin, who began his career at age 12, was planning to retire from music three years ago when, on a trip to Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, he encountered three shivering girls en route to a life in India's sex trade.

He decided to use music "to reach masses of people and maybe even leaders," he said. "The opportunity music gave me to meet with children less fortunate is inspiring me."