Improving the Effectiveness of the International Law of Human Trafficking: A Vision for the Future of the US Trafficking in Persons Reports

Abstract

In 2000, the United States Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act requiring its State Department to issue annual Trafficking in Persons Reports (TIP Reports) describing "the nature and extent of severe forms of trafficking in persons" and assessing governmental efforts across the world to combat such trafficking against criteria established by US law. This article examines the opportunities and risks presented by the TIP Reports, tracing their evolution over the past decade and considering their impact on the behavior of states. In looking to the future, the article focuses on how this influential unilateral compliance mechanism could improve its legitimacy, respond to negative impacts, and better contribute to the international legal regime around trafficking.

North Korean Women's Narratives of Migration: Challenging Hegemonic Discourses of Trafficking and Geopolitics

“…Critics argue that this taxonomy mirrors binary understandings of power and spatiality-East and West, security and danger, freedom and oppression-reminiscent of the war on terror (Gregory and Pred 2006). Indeed, as scholars have observed (Kempadoo 2005;Gallagher 2010), in 2009 Iran and a number of other Muslim countries were categorized as Tier 3, alongside Burma and Cuba. Meanwhile, Australia's position in Tier 1 never changed, even though it took several years to meet minimum standards.…”

“…The Trafficking in Persons reports have been highly contentious, not only because of the position of authority assumed by the United States in categorizing states but also because of ongoing concerns about methodologies used to determine tier placement and compliance (Moon 2008;Gallagher 2010; Government Accounting Office 2010). By categorizing nation-states based on government efforts to combat trafficking, the United States is producing new spatial imaginaries of the world.…”

The Trafficking in Persons Report: a game of risk

“…Tier rankings: methodology and the three P's (with prevention as the littlest P) There has been a lack of transparency about how data is compiled for the Report and specific details about how tier rankings are assessed, which has been critiqued in a number of studies (Gallagher, 2011;Woodtich, 2011;Woodtich et al, 2009). The Report lists some of their data sources, such as US embassies, governmental officials, etc., which gives the impression that information for the Report may be obtained in oldfashioned ways, such as through rumors on the seafront, and in more modern ways, such International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 261 as online news or academic reports.…”

“…In the first edition of TIP in 2001, there was a lack of clarity about the distinction between migrant smuggling and human trafficking (Gallagher, 2011). This confusion may in part have been due to the emergence of trafficking as a relatively new global issue and the many permutations of smuggling scenarios (Agustin, 2006;Chacon, 2006).…”

“…The initial versions of TIP focused on cross-border trafficking, and primarily sex trafficking (Gallagher, 2011), but the Report later adopted a definition of human trafficking that applies to both cross-border and domestic trafficking and overall broader types of severe labor exploitation. The Report now defines human trafficking as "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion" (US Department of State 2011, p. 3).…”