2020 TIP Report Released
This past Thursday, June 25th, the U.S. State Department released the 2020 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. You will find the full report here, but we’ll share some highlights in this post as well as reasons why this report is an important tool in the fight to end modern day slavery.
Background
With the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, also known as the TIP Office), was created in the Department of State. Each year, the TIP Office releases this in depth analysis on human trafficking around the world. Countries are assigned to Tiers, which reflect how the country is doing in its efforts to combat trafficking within its borders. Tier 1 countries, like the United States, are meeting the minimum criteria established by the TVPA in attempting to eliminate trafficking. Tier 1 countries are not without human trafficking, however. The list of Tier 1 countries consists of many of the leading, industrialized countries (e.g. Canada, France, UK, US and others), with relatively strong laws and enough resources to combat trafficking. Tier 2 countries do not fully meet the minimum TVPA standards, but they are making significant efforts to become compliant. Some notable examples in this category include Costa Rica, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, and Thailand. Tier 2 Watchlist means the country is very close to being given the worst rating, Tier 3, and some of those countries are Cambodia, Ireland, Romania, and Vietnam. Finally, Tier 3 countries are not meeting the minimum TVPA standards, and are not making significant efforts to improve. The 2020 list of Tier 3 countries include China, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, and Russia.
Why do these ratings matter? 190 countries are party to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC, also called Palermo Convention), and one of the supplementary protocols is the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. The TIP report is one of the primary tools that can be used to monitor how countries are following the principles of the Palermo Protocols. Another example of why this report matters is to monitor progress against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which is a blueprint for achieving a better, more sustainable future for all. Goal 16 is Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and one of the targets, sub-goals if you will, is to “End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.” The SDGs are a great framework for organizations large and small, governmental and non-governmental (aka nonprofits), all around the world to adopt so we can work together towards a better word. In addition the UN website, we also recommend checking RELX’s SDG Resource Center.
Lastly, the US uses the TIP report as a tool for diplomacy. Under the TVPA, the US can withhold non-humanitarian aid to Tier 3 countries. While we don’t have great diplomatic relationships already with many of the Tier 3 countries, you can bet that Tier 2 and Watchlist countries do not want to be downgraded to Tier 3 in next year’s report.
2020 Highlights (and surprises)
The report starts off by looking back over the last 20 years, and how the report has evolved. The evolution of the report includes the look and feel, going from a plain, text-only cover in the first few years to the current cover format with the eyes graphic. The Tier 2 Watchlist category was added in 2004 after the 2003 TVPA reauthorization. The Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) list of countries was included for the first time in 2011. In more recent years, there have been changes to how long countries could receive waivers to remain on the Watchlist instead of the mandated automatic downgrade to Tier 3 (after so many years on the Watchlist).
The rest of the report has several special topic narratives, like Faith-Based Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking, and Human Trafficking of Athletes, a detailed description of the tiers, statistics and overviews of regions of the world, and a narrative of each country.
There were a few surprises that stood out to me in the report. First, Japan’s downgrade to Tier 2 caught my attention. Apparently, Japan only had a two year streak as a Tier 1 country before this downgrade. One of the reasons noted in the analysis, which was highlighted in this Kyodo News article, was that despite complaints and suspected abuses of intern worker, Japan failed to identify a single case of labor trafficking in the past year.
Another surprise was Ireland. The country was on the Tier 1 list from 2013 to 2017, then Tier 2 the last two years before being put on the Watchlist in this report. There has been a significant decrease in human trafficking investigations in the last several years, and there has not been a single conviction for trafficking since 2013.
The last country that I’ll highlight in this post is Costa Rica. The tourist-friendly Central American country remained in the Tier 2 list, as they continue to demonstrate increased efforts to combat trafficking. Tourism is Costa Rica’s number one industry, as it is relatively safe, it’s beautiful, and there are a variety of environments to experience from beaches to rain forests. However, prostitution is legal in the country, so it’s also a destination for sex tourists, and women and girls are trafficked into the country to meet demand. The report says that “Women and girls from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and other Latin American countries have been identified in Costa Rica as victims of sex trafficking and domestic servitude.” Free To Fun Foundation supports an NGO in Jacó, Costa Rica called Casafé, which is an after school tutoring and surf ministry for youth at risk. I have been to Jacó four times between 2013 and 2018, and we will likely be returning once the pandemic is over (hopefully summer of 2021.)
Using this Report for Advocacy
If you consider yourself an abolitionist, or if you’re just getting started and want to be more involved in the fight to end human trafficking, then first and foremost, the the TIP report is extremely valuable as an awareness tool. There are not very many reports on slavery today that are this comprehensive. (Another one that comes to mind is the Global Slavery Index from the Walk Free Foundation. Other Anti-Trafficking NGOs produce valuable educational and awareness materials. Check out our previous post for more resources.) As you become more informed about human trafficking, and you can begin to cite specific countries and their unique issues, you will be more equipped to advocate and inform others.
A more tangible step you can take now is to use the release of this report as a reason to contact your Representative in the House and Senators and encourage them to demonstrate US leadership on this issue and to support foreign aid funding to help other countries, which has been sharply cut under the current administration. You can email or call your legislators’ offices (don’t know who they are? Look them up here.) If you have a Twitter account, International Justice Mission offers a mechanism on their website that allows you to Tweet your representatives. It’s very quick and easy to do: Tweet Congress.
Finally, you can write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, share the report on social media, and of course share this blog post.
Share Your Thoughts
What are your reactions to the 2020 TIP Report? Take some time to read through the report, then share this post and share your reactions. Also be sure to check out this year’s TIP Report Heroes in the report. These are individuals honored for devoting their life to fighting human trafficking. Which hero inspires you the most?
PDF version of the report: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf