Submitted by crinadmin on
[WASHINGTON, 13 June 2007] - The Department of State is required by law to submit a Report each year to the U.S. Congress on foreign governments' efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. This Report is the seventh annual TIP Report. It is intended to raise global awareness, to highlight efforts of the international community, and to encourage foreign governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of trafficking in persons. The U.S. law that guides anti-human trafficking efforts, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended (TVPA), states that the purpose of combating human trafficking is to punish traffickers, to protect victims, and to prevent trafficking from occurring. Freeing those trapped in slave-like conditions is the ultimate goal of this Report-and of the U.S. Government's anti-human trafficking policy. Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat. It deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it increases global health risks, and it fuels the growth of organised crime. Human trafficking has a devastating impact on individual victims, who often suffer physical and emotional abuse, rape, threats against self and family, document theft, and even death. But the impact of human trafficking goes beyond individual victims; it undermines the health, safety and security of all nations. There is an ever-growing community of nations making significant efforts to eliminate this atrocious crime. A country that fails to make significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons, as outlined in the TVPA, receives a "Tier 3" assessment in this Report. Such an assessment could trigger the withholding by the United States of non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance. In assessing foreign governments' efforts, the TIP Report highlights the "three P's"-prosecution, protection, and prevention. But a victim-centered approach to trafficking requires us also to address the "three R's"-rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration-and to encourage learning and sharing of best practices in these areas. This year is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. The movement led by British parliamentarian William Wilberforce took decades to succeed. It required a nation to deepen and expand its definition of human dignity. It required a nation to declare that moral values outweigh commercial interests. Nothing less is required today of every nation taking up the contemporary challenge to eliminate human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery. Further information
pdf: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/