Since the release of the 2011 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report three weeks ago, we’ve been busy processing the recommendations both here in the U.S. and in our Japan office. Polaris Project Japan, the biggest anti-trafficking non-profit in the country, has taken stock of the state of human trafficking in Japan, which remains a top destination country and has a unique set of struggles owing to its cultural and economic climate. [Read more →]

This year’s TIP Report includes country narratives on 184 countries, featuring seven new profiles on Aruba, Curacao, Marshall Islands, St. Lucia, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, and Tonga. One of the most notable components of the TIP Report is the tier placements, and of course everyone wants to know how their country measured up this year. The 2011 TIP Report boasts upgrades for 23 countries and demotions for 22 countries, a quasi-equilibrium in shifts. But what does this re-shuffling mean? [Read more →]

The release of the TIP Report highlights the necessity of passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). On June 29, 2011, Senators Leahy, Kerry, and Brown introduced the 2011 TVPRA bill, building on the momentum of the TIP Report release a few days earlier. [Read more →]

Human trafficking remains a pervasive problem in the United States. The U.S. State Department included analysis of the U.S. government in the TIP Report for the first time in 2010, and the U.S. has retained its Tier 1 ranking in the 2011 report.  As part of achieving a Tier 1 ranking in 2011, Polaris Project helped train federal law enforcement, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and state and local law enforcement around the country to encourage prioritizing trafficking cases and prosecutions, as well as enable them to recognize red flags that indicate trafficking, via our National Training and Technical Assistance Program (NTTAP). [Read more →]

With this week’s Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report release, the anti-trafficking movement has been buzzing with activity, collaboration, and progress. We’ve had the privilege of meeting some of the people leading the movement internationally: the 2011 TIP Heroes. These are ten individuals from all over the world who work tirelessly to combat human trafficking. Yesterday, the Department of State coordinated with the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST) to provide anti-trafficking NGOs with a chance to listen to and exchange stories with the Heroes. Today, the TIP Heroes visited the Polaris Project headquarters to share knowledge and learn about our organization. [Read more →]

The U.S. State Department’s Annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released on Monday, June 27, 2011. If you didn’t have time to read the full report, check out this quick summary of findings on the 2010 Interactive World Map of Tier Placements. We’re anxiously awaiting the 2011 interactive world map.

The U.S. was not included in the report until 2010 and was labeled Tier 1—the highest ranking—which it has maintained in 2011. The report does not purport that countries within the Tier 1 category experience no human trafficking. Rather, the Tier 1 distinction indicates that a country has met and continued to progress in meeting the minimum standards toward eradicating human trafficking, but has more work to do. Still, what does this mean for the states? Which states are working to end modern-day slavery in the U.S.? [Read more →]

The U.S. State Department’s Annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released on Monday, June 27, 2011. It is compiled each year to analyze 184 governments’ efforts to combat human trafficking within their own borders. Governments are ranked into one of three tiers based on their attempts to meet the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” in Section 108 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).  It is useful as a tool for diplomatic pressure and incentives, a map of trafficking streams and trends, and an update on status quo practices and implementation of anti-trafficking efforts globally. [Read more →]

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. [Read more →]

This week Secretary of State Clinton and my successor as anti-trafficking ambassador, former anti-slavery prosecutor Luis CdeBaca, rolled out the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The rollout embodied the bipartisan and inter-branch support of the anti-slavery issue which I experienced as ambassador. This report is an invaluable tool to nudge and prod other governments to improve their records fighting slavery. Whether they had a welcoming or grousing response, governments focused on their anti-trafficking efforts after reading the report. At the UN world conference on human trafficking in Vienna in February 2008, I heard dozens consider it rightly the state-of-the-art global report, like no other. [Read more →]

In a few days, a group of non-government organizations will be meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about a serious human trafficking matter: the veritable enslavement of some domestic servants by diplomats.  On our soil. [Read more →]