U.S. Will Grade Self with Trafficking Report Card in TIP Report

Since its inception in 2000, the U.S. Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons report has passed judgment on foreign governments regarding their efforts to combat human trafficking.  But next year for the first time, promises Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, the U.S. will grade itself using the same standards.

The TIP Report traditionally has only focused on foreign countries, claiming that because the Department of State is concerned with international affairs, human trafficking in the U.S. is outside of it's jurisdiction.  Instead, the U.S. Department of Justice has annually issued a report examining efforts to combat human trafficking in the U.S.  However, the two reports are extremely different in scope, methodology, and format, making comparisons between the U.S. and other countries difficult.  In the past couple of years, the U.S. has gained a greater presence in the TIP Report, usually in the form of a page-long blurb abut U.S. anti-trafficking efforts.

I will be quite interested to see what "grade" we give ourselves in the next TIP Report.  Honestly, I don't see how we could rate ourselves as anything less than a Tier 1 country, and I'm not sure necessarily that we should.  The U.S. has a number of strong laws against human trafficking, both on the national and the local level.  We have a huge participation by civil society in the anti-trafficking movement.  And for the most part, we have good communication between NGOs and the government.  do we still have lots of room for improvement?  Of course we do.  But when comparing the U.S. against an international standard, I have to say that at least in the anti-trafficking movement, we measure up pretty well.

But no matter the grade, I agree with Secretary Clinton that the inclusion of the U.S. in the TIP Report will help lend legitimacy and weight to both the report and to the excellent anti-trafficking efforts which are taking place in the U.S.

Image from media.vivanews.com