Top Ten Take-Aways from the 2010 TIP Report

The United States Department of State’s 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report is a must-read (or perhaps a must-skim) for people in the human trafficking community. Until you get the chance to read its 50+ pages of color and victims’ stories followed by 300+ pages of dense tables and analysis, here are our top 10 take-aways:

1. For the first time ever, the United States included itself in the TIP Report (we consider ourselves Tier 1). There are 4 victim-story boxes on trafficking and the U.S., one of which involved a U.S. citizen trafficked internally, and the country analysis in the data section.
2. Presumably because of the U.S.’s inclusion, the 2010 report makes clear that “While Tier 1 is the highest ranking, it does not mean that a country has no human trafficking problem. On the contrary, a Tier 1 ranking indicates that a government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, has made efforts to address the problem, and meets the TVPA’s minimum standards. [...] Indeed,Tier 1 represents a responsibility rather than a reprieve.”
3. In her release speech this morning, Secretary Clinton added a 4th P (partnership) to the TIP Report’s usual 3 (trafficking prevention, criminal prosecution, and victim protection), and emphasized the important of partnerships between nations and between nations and NGOs.
   
4. In yet another P development, this year’s TIP Report refers to the UN’s Palermo Protocol 14 times, to the 2009 report single reference. Perhaps this is another indication in a trend towards partnership?
5. The report names 3Ds of common harmful approaches to human trafficking: detention, deportation and disempowerment. Throughout the boxes in the colorful section the report, these are used as examples of bad practices which contribute to tier demotion (see above for example).
6. The new report devotes a third of a page to the Department of Labor’s list of 122 goods or products from 58 countries that are produced with forced labor or child labor in violation of international standards. The full report is available here (pdf).
7. The 2010 report clarifies that illicit trade in human organs is not a form of human trafficking (the 2009 report included a section on human trafficking for organ removal, which is a distinct but easily conflated issue).
8. Diplomats who abuse domestic workers are singled out for a full-page profile.
9. The report highlights the list of countries that have child soldiers, naming: Burma, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen (the list’s inclusion is a provision of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008).
10. The most important take-away is the small global trend towards stronger protections. With 22 countries moving up a tier and 19 moving down, there is reason for hope. The maps below are a clean summary of the state of the trafficking world from the Department of State’s point of view.

Legend of Colors for 2010 U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report