What Does the Department of State Do to Combat Human Trafficking?

1. U.S. Department of StateOffice to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in PersonsLaura RundletSandra Day O’Connor College of LawArizona State UniversityMarch 11, 2011

2. What Does the Department of State Do to Combat Human Trafficking? The Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons was created by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). • Produces the annual Trafficking in Persons Report • Chairs the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, created by TVPA to coordinate U.S. government policy, programs and planning • Funds and monitors anti-human trafficking programs overseas • Encourages cooperation through face-to-face diplomacy • Engages in public diplomacy and raises public awareness

3. U.S. and Int’l Trafficking Laws • The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), passed with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Clinton in 2000 • The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol),adopted in Palermo, Italy in 2000 and entered into force in 2003

4. Palermo Protocol Definition of TIP • “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;

5. TVPA Definition of TIP • SEVERE FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS—The term ‘severe forms of trafficking in persons’ means— (A) sex trafficking [the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act] in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

6. Growing Global Consensus Modern slavery is generally defined as a set of acts, means and purposes:Acts: recruiting, harboring, transporting, obtainingMeans: using force, fraud or coercion Purposes: involuntary servitude, debt bondage, slavery or commercial sex • There are between 12 and 27 million slaves in the world today. • Victims of human trafficking can be men, women, or children; citizens or non-citizens, with or without legal status. • Trafficking in persons does not need to involve movement across international boundaries. • Trafficking in persons takes many forms: • Forced Labor • Bonded Labor • Sex Trafficking • Debt Bondage among Migrant Laborers • Involuntary Domestic Servitude • Forced Child Labor • Child Soldiers • Child Sex Trafficking

7. The Three “P” Approach • Prosecution: - Prosecute traffickers - Pass anti-trafficking legislation • Protection: - Identify victims and protect them - Assist victims - Encourage government-NGO cooperation • Prevention: - Public awareness - Training police, first-responders - Discourage demand

9. The 4 Minimum Standards • First Standard:The government of the country should prohibit severe forms of trafficking in persons and punish acts of such trafficking. • Second Standard:For the knowing commission of any act of sex trafficking involving force, fraud, coercion, or in which the victim of sex trafficking is a child incapable of giving meaningful consent, or of trafficking which includes rape or kidnapping or which causes a death, the government of the country should prescribe punishment commensurate with that for grave crimes, such as forcible sexual assault.

10. The 4 Minimum Standards • Third Standard:For the knowing commission of any act of a severe form of trafficking in persons, the government of the country should prescribe punishment that is sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the heinous nature of the offense. • Fourth Standard:The government of the country should make serious and sustained efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons.

11. Tier Rankings (2010 TIP Report) • Tier 1(30 countries) • Tier 2(74 countries) • Tier 2 Watch List(58 countries) • Tier 3 (13 countries)

12. Examples of Positive Impact of TIP Assessments • Enacting new anti-TIP laws or laws focused on particular problems • Reducing numbers of victims or increasing numbers rescued • Addressing government complicity or corruption • Forming a national task force or naming a “czar”

13. Automatic Downgrade Section 107(a) of the 2008 reauthorization of the TVPA requires that any country included on the Special Watch List (Tier 2) for two consecutive years be automatically listed in the following year’s report on the so-called Tier 3 List of countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Minimum Standardsfor the elimination of trafficking and are not making significant efforts to do so.

14. U.S. Government Interagency Coordination • President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (PITF) • Department of State • Department of Defense • Department of Justice • Department of the Interior • Department of Agriculture • Department of Labor • Department of Education • Department of Health and Human Services • Department of Homeland Security • Office of Management and Budget • Office of the Director of National Intelligence • Federal Bureau of Investigation • U.S. Agency for International Development • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG) Photos from the 2011 PITF Meeting, February 1,2011

15. A Decade Later… • Increased convictions worldwide • 40 percent increase: from 2,983 in 2009 to 4,166 in 2010 • As of the last TIP Report, 116 countries have enacted legislation prohibiting all forms of TIP • In the last year, 33 countries have enacted anti-TIP legislation, 7 of them comprehensive anti-TIP laws