Voice of America News
Clinton says Combating Human Trafficking 'Critical'
written by By David Gollust
Tuesday June 16, 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the fight against human trafficking, abroad and in the United States, is a critical part of the Obama administration's agenda. She spoke on the release of a State Department report that listed 17 countries as failing to make significant efforts to address the problem.
To underscore the priority the administration puts on the issue, Clinton made the release of the report a major event that included bipartisan Congressional leaders and activists from Albania and Costa Rica who were among nine people from around the world saluted in the report as anti-trafficking heroes.
Clinton called the trafficking of persons for forced labor, sexual exploitation and other illicit purposes "modern-day" slavery that spans the globe and affects every country including the United States.
She said the annual reports, mandated by an act of Congress in 2000, are intended to encourage nations to act where necessary with criticism and the threat of possible U.S. sanctions.
"We hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed," said Clinton. "Trafficking thrives in the shadows. And it can be easy to dismiss it as something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But that is not the case. Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on earth, and that includes our own."
The report based on information from U.S. embassies, international organizations and non-governmental groups assessed 175 countries and gave 17 of them the lowest possible rating for anti-trafficking efforts.
The so-called "Tier Three" countries included 10 holdovers from last year - Burma, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Kuwait, North Korea, Papua-New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.
Four countries with poor ratings last year were downgraded to the lowest category - Chad, Malaysia, Niger and Zimbabwe. Three that were not covered in the 2008 report, Eritrea, Mauritania and Swaziland, were also listed in Tier Three.
Please click HERE to read the entire article... MUST READ!
Clinton says Combating Human Trafficking 'Critical'
written by By David Gollust
Tuesday June 16, 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the fight against human trafficking, abroad and in the United States, is a critical part of the Obama administration's agenda. She spoke on the release of a State Department report that listed 17 countries as failing to make significant efforts to address the problem.
To underscore the priority the administration puts on the issue, Clinton made the release of the report a major event that included bipartisan Congressional leaders and activists from Albania and Costa Rica who were among nine people from around the world saluted in the report as anti-trafficking heroes.
Clinton called the trafficking of persons for forced labor, sexual exploitation and other illicit purposes "modern-day" slavery that spans the globe and affects every country including the United States.
She said the annual reports, mandated by an act of Congress in 2000, are intended to encourage nations to act where necessary with criticism and the threat of possible U.S. sanctions.
"We hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed," said Clinton. "Trafficking thrives in the shadows. And it can be easy to dismiss it as something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But that is not the case. Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on earth, and that includes our own."
The report based on information from U.S. embassies, international organizations and non-governmental groups assessed 175 countries and gave 17 of them the lowest possible rating for anti-trafficking efforts.
The so-called "Tier Three" countries included 10 holdovers from last year - Burma, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Kuwait, North Korea, Papua-New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.
Four countries with poor ratings last year were downgraded to the lowest category - Chad, Malaysia, Niger and Zimbabwe. Three that were not covered in the 2008 report, Eritrea, Mauritania and Swaziland, were also listed in Tier Three.
Please click HERE to read the entire article... MUST READ!
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