Report card on ourselves

My last blog was about the 9th annual global Trafficking in Persons Report rolled out this week by the Secretary of State.   One of the most important aspects of the rollout is not the Report.  It’s the concurrent Report on the fight against human trafficking within the United States compiled by the Attorney-General.

As Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons I found that a crucial complement to handing other nations frank assessments of their performance – with grades no less – was to speak transparently to U.S. efforts at home.   Admitting what we weren’t doing well was as important as what we were.

My predecessor John Miller used his State Department office’s funds to print hardcopies of an annual assessment to Congress compiled by the Attorney-General on U.S. governmental efforts to fight human trafficking.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) just posted it on the web, and didn’t publish it.  Miller tried in vain for three years to get the DOJ to time the release of the Report to coincide with the global report coming out of the State Department.   Nations naturally think and sometimes ask whether we graded ourselves, and a concurrent report would help answer.

Then when I came on board, as chair of the inter-agency committee created by Congress to fight human trafficking, I pushed the DOJ again, mentioning the need at Congressional briefings.   Last year, the DOJ wisely agreed, and a Report came out shortly before the global report.

The report listed areas the U.S. needed to improve, self-critically.   But that self-criticism was admittedly a bit thin.

This year, DOJ released a bound report the very same day as the State Department global report came out.   (Secretary Clinton said we might expect the entry on the U.S. in the global report in the future to start being accompanied by a tier ranking.)

The recommendations are striking.  Polaris has been calling for and acting upon a number of these ideas for a few years.   They include:

- DOJ human trafficking and FBI child prostitution task forces coordinating better despite turf.

- Intensive case management to help both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens who are traumatized victims navigate the bureaucracy and get the services to which they have rights on paper.

- Ensuring that diplomatic immunity doesn’t shield diplomats enslaving domestic servants.

- Getting opinion leaders to help deglamorize sexual exploitation and the demand for it.

- Better state and local laws and their enforcement, involving wider training of law enforcement.

It isn’t self-loathing to admit the truth about what we need to do at home.   This self-criticism immensely advances the credibility and impact of the U.S. global diplomacy to urge other nations to change too.

Indeed the need for it is precisely the reason I came from the State Department to Polaris Project – matching my admonitions with my job.   Join that cause.