WUNRN
USA - CALL FOR INFORMATION FOR 2012
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT
As
you work on the front lines to combat human
trafficking, you gain critical information
about the
efforts of foreign governments and the
U.S. government to address TRAFFICKING.
Your observations would be incredibly useful to the Department
of State as we prepare to draft the 2012
Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report). I urge you to participate in
strengthening the Report by responding to this call for information. All of the details, including the deadline, can be found below. However, if you wish to view the full solicitation,
please see the Federal
Register Notice.
I also invite you to
submit your organization’s public awareness campaign materials, such as trafficking-related
photos, billboards, posters, or
murals, that have been developed or disseminated over the last year.
These may be featured (with credit) in the 2012 TIP Report. Please submit these in high resolution (1 MB or more)
digital image files.
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca
Background:
The TIP Report is the most comprehensive worldwide report on foreign
governments’ efforts to combat trafficking in persons. It represents an
updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the
broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S.
Government uses the TIP Report to engage in diplomacy to encourage partnership
in creating and implementing laws and policies to combat trafficking and
to target resources on prevention, protection, and prosecution programs.
Worldwide, the report is used by international organizations, foreign
governments, and nongovernmental organizations alike as a tool to examine where
resources are most needed. Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and
bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the report and of the
U.S. Government’s anti-human trafficking policy.
The
Department prepares the TIP Report using information from across the U.S.
government, U.S. embassies, foreign government officials, nongovernmental and
international organizations, published reports, and research trips to every
region. The TIP Report focuses on concrete actions that governments take
to fight trafficking in persons, including prosecutions, convictions, and prison
sentences for traffickers, as well as victim protection measures and prevention
efforts. Each TIP Report narrative also includes a section on
recommendations. These recommendations are then used to assist in
measuring progress from one year to the next and in determining whether
governments comply with the minimum standards to eliminate trafficking in
persons or are making significant efforts to do so.
Scope: The Department of State
requests information on the degree to which the United States’ and foreign governments’
complied in the year 2011 with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking in persons (“minimum standards”) that are prescribed by the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended (“TVPA”). This
information will assist in the preparation of the 2012 Trafficking in
Persons Report that the Department will submit to appropriate committees in
the U.S. Congress on countries’ level of compliance with the minimum standards.
Submissions should include, but need not be limited to, answering the
questions in the Information Sought section below. Only those questions
for which the submitter has direct professional experience should be answered
and that experience should be noted. For any critique or deficiency described,
please provide a recommendation to remedy it. Note the country or countries
that are the focus of the submission.
Submissions
may include written narratives that answer the questions presented below,
research, studies, statistics, fieldwork, training materials, evaluations,
assessments, and other relevant evidence of local, state, and federal
government efforts. To the extent possible, precise dates should be
included. Respondents need not answer every question posed below; any
responses that can be provided are greatly appreciated.
Where
applicable, written narratives providing factual information should provide
citations to sources and copies of the source material should be
provided. If possible, send electronic copies of the entire submission,
including source material. If primary sources are utilized, such as
research studies, interviews, direct observations, or other sources of
quantitative or qualitative data, details on the research or data-gathering
methodology should be provided. The Department does not include in the
report, and is therefore not seeking, information on prostitution, human
smuggling, visa fraud, or child abuse, unless such conduct occurs in the
context of human trafficking.
Dates: Submissions must
be received by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons by 5
p.m. on February
15, 2012. Written submissions and
supporting documentation may be submitted by the following methods:
·
Email (preferred): tipreport@state.gov for submissions
related to foreign governments and tipreportUS@state.gov for submissions
related to the United States.
· Fax: 202-312-9637
· Mail, Express Delivery, Hand Delivery, and Messenger Service: U.S. Department of State, Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, 1800 G Street, NW, Suite 2148,
Washington, DC 20520. Please note that materials submitted by mail may be
delayed due to security screenings.
Confidentiality: Please provide the name, phone number, and email address of
a single point of contact for any submission. It is Department practice not to
identify in the TIP Report information concerning sources in order to safeguard
those sources. Please note, however, that any information submitted to the
Department may be releasable pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act or other applicable law. When applicable, portions of
submissions relevant to efforts by other U.S. government agencies may be shared
with those agencies.
III. Information Sought Relevant to the Minimum
Standards
1. How have trafficking methods changed
in the past 12 months? (E.g., are there victims from new countries of
origin? Is internal trafficking or child trafficking increasing? Has sex
trafficking changed from brothels to private apartments? Is labor trafficking
now occurring in additional types of industries or agricultural operations? Is
forced begging a problem?)
2. In what ways has the government’s efforts
to combat trafficking in persons changed in the past year? What new laws,
regulations, policies, and implementation strategies exist (e.g., substantive
criminal laws and procedures, mechanisms for civil remedies, and victim-witness
security, generally, and in relation to court proceedings)?
3. Please provide observations
regarding the implementation of existing laws and procedures.
4. Is the government
equally vigorous in pursuing labor trafficking and sex trafficking?
5. Are the anti-trafficking laws and
sentences strict enough to reflect the nature of the crime? Are sex trafficking
sentences commensurate with rape sentences?
6. Do government officials understand the nature of trafficking? If not, please provide examples of misconceptions or misunderstandings.
7. Do judges appear appropriately
knowledgeable and sensitized to trafficking cases? What sentences have courts
imposed upon traffickers? How common are suspended sentences and prison time of
less than one year for convicted traffickers?
8. Please provide observations
regarding the efforts of police and prosecutors to pursue trafficking
cases.
9. Are government officials (including law
enforcement) complicit in human trafficking by, for example, profiting from,
taking bribes, or receiving sexual services for allowing it to continue? Are
government officials operating trafficking rings or activities? If so, have
these government officials been subject to an investigation and/or prosecution?
What punishments have been imposed?
10. Has
the government vigorously investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced
nationals of the country deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other
similar mission who engage in or facilitate trafficking?
11. Has the government investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced organized crime groups that are involved in trafficking?
12. Is the country a source of sex tourists and, if so, what are their destination countries? Is the country a destination for sex tourists and, if so, what are their source countries?
13. Please provide observations regarding
government efforts to address the issue of unlawful child soldiering.
14. Does the government make a
coordinated, proactive effort to identify victims? Is there any screening
conducted before deportation to determine whether individuals were trafficked?
15. What victim services are provided
(legal, medical, food, shelter, interpretation, mental health care, health
care, repatriation)? Who provides these services? If nongovernment
organizations provide the services, does the government support their work
either financially or otherwise?
16. How could victim services be improved?
17. Are services provided equally and
adequately to victims of labor and sex trafficking? Men, women, and children?
Citizen and noncitizen?
18. Do service organizations and law
enforcement work together cooperatively, for instance, to share information
about trafficking trends or to plan for services after a raid? What is the
level of cooperation, communication, and trust between service organizations
and law enforcement?
19. May
victims file civil suits or seek legal action against their trafficker? Do
victims avail themselves of those remedies?
20. Does the government repatriate
victims? Does the government assist with third country resettlement? Does the
government engage in any analysis of whether victims may face retribution or
hardship upon repatriation to their country of origin? Are victims awaiting
repatriation or third country resettlement offered services? Are victims indeed
repatriated or are they deported?
21. Does the government inappropriately
detain or imprison identified trafficking victims?
22. Does the government punish trafficking
victims for forgery of documents, illegal immigration, unauthorized employment,
or participation in illegal activities directed by the trafficker?
23. What
efforts has the government made to prevent human trafficking?
24. Are
there efforts to address root causes of trafficking such as poverty; lack of
access to education and economic opportunity; and discrimination against women,
children, and minorities?
25. Does
the government undertake activities that could prevent or reduce vulnerability
to trafficking, such as registering births of indigenous populations?
26. Does
the government provide financial support to NGOs working to promote public
awareness or does the government implement such campaigns itself? Have public
awareness campaigns proven to be effective?
27. Please
provide additional recommendations to improve the government’s anti-trafficking
efforts.
28. Please
highlight effective strategies and practices that other governments could
consider adopting.