At a June 16 event at the State Department marking the release of the ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report, Clinton emphasized the need for more public-private partnerships to fight the scourge of modern-day slavery.

“The criminal network that enslaves millions of people crosses borders and spans continents,” Clinton said, “so our response must do the same.”

“We are committed to working with all nations collaboratively,” the secretary said.

The trafficking of persons has been condemned by President Obama as “a debasement of our common humanity.” According to the International Labor Organization, the United Nations agency that oversees labor standards and social-protection issues, at least 12.3 million adults and children are in forced labor, bonded labor or commercial sexual servitude at any given time.

Human trafficking, Clinton said, affects virtually every country, including the United States. To fight the problem, the U.S. government funds 140 anti-trafficking programs in nearly 70 countries, as well as 42 domestic task forces to address the problem within the borders of the United States.

UNITED STATES TO BE ADDED IN 2010

The U.S. Department of State is required by law to submit each year to the Congress a report on foreign governments’ efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. The report, the most comprehensive of its kind, this year assesses 175 countries. Countries are assigned ranks, based on standards set by the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). (See: "Annual Trafficking in Persons Report Released.")

Countries that do not make significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards receive a Tier 3 ranking. Such an assessment could prompt the United States to withhold nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance. Seventeen countries are on the Tier 3 list this year, including Burma, Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea.

A “Tier 2 Watch List” is reserved for countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to do so. Watch List countries also have significant numbers of trafficking victims or those numbers are significantly increasing without government efforts to adequately address the problem. Recent amendments to U.S. law stipulate that countries that stay on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years will be automatically downgraded to Tier 3.

Clinton emphasized that the annual Trafficking in Persons report “is not an indictment of past failures but a guide to future progress.”

“With this report, we hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery, so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed,” Clinton said.

The secretary also made the announcement that the State Department will rank the United States in its report to be released next year, even though the U.S. Department of Justice releases an annual report focused exclusively on the trafficking problem as it exists inside the United States.

“I believe when you shine a bright light, you need to shine it on everyone,” she said.

ECONOMIC WOES MAKE MORE PEOPLE VULNERABLE

According to this year’s report, which covers April 2008 through March 2009, the onset of a global financial crisis “has raised the specter of increased human trafficking around the world.”

“As a result of the crisis,” the report says, “two concurrent trends — a shrinking global demand for labor and a growing supply of workers willing to take ever greater risks for economic opportunities — seem a recipe for increased forced labor cases of migrant workers and women in prostitution.”

The financial crisis has also strained donor nations and philanthropists, and, as a result, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that help shelter and rehabilitate trafficking victims are suffering, according to Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Although a majority of the world’s countries now have criminal legislation prohibiting all forms of trafficking in persons, this year’s Trafficking in Persons Report, along with a recent United Nations survey, found that many countries have not brought any cases under their trafficking statutes, and few labor-trafficking cases are being prosecuted.

CdeBaca, himself a federal prosecutor who has worked many trafficking cases, noted that the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime recently released its own report on global human trafficking and found that two out of every five countries have yet to achieve a single conviction of a human trafficker. “Prosecutions can be a blunt tool, but they do matter” in deterring traffickers, he said.

HEROES HONORED

In addition to a number of U.S. senators and House members, two anti-trafficking activists were present at the June 16 State Department event: Mariliana Morales Berrios of Costa Rica and Vera Lesko of Albania. Berrios founded a rehabilitation foundation in 1997 to help trafficking victims build a new life with their families. Lesko risked her life providing shelter to rescued trafficking victims.

Both women were among nine individuals from around the world honored by the State Department as heroes in the fight against trafficking. The other seven are: Benjamin Perrin of Canada; George Vanikiotis of Greece; Sunitha Krishnan of India; Elly Anita of Indonesia; Aida Abu Ras of Jordan; Alice Nah of Malaysia; and Inacio Sebastiao Mussanhane of Mozambique.

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