Which country enacted the tip report

Lawmakers, advocates, survivors, and law enforcement all need accurate information in order to direct limited resources in effective and efficient ways. The TIP Report has long been the gold standard used to understand how trafficking is addressed around the world.

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We are going to dive into what the TIP Report is, what each ranking means, and how this report is useful and helpful in fighting human trafficking globally. Within this Act, Congress recognized the prevalence of trafficking in the US and worldwide, committed to addressing the evil of human trafficking, and called other countries to do the same. A part of the foreign policy laid forth in the TVPA required the Secretary of State to publish an annual report to rank various countries on their anti trafficking policies and efforts to eradicate the problem.

Hence, the Trafficking in Persons Report was established. The report emphasizes that receiving a Tier 1 ranking does NOT imply there is no trafficking in that country, but rather that the country is working to address and eliminate the problem to the standards of the US Department of State and in compliance with the TVPA. Additionally in , the Child Soldiers Prevention Act required the TIP Report to include a specific list of countries that recruit or use child soldiers in their armed forces, police, or other security forces.

So what are the minimum standards for a country to try and eliminate trafficking, and what does it mean to be fully compliant? They are broken into the four following standards:. In the United States, Congress has led efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons domestically and internationally, particularly with its enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of P.

A key element of the TVPA's foreign policy objectives involved a new requirement for the Secretary of State to produce an annual report on human trafficking and to rank foreign governments based on their antitrafficking efforts. In the ensuing reports, which the State Department titled as Trafficking in Persons TIP reports, the department developed a ranking system in which the best-ranked countries were identified as Tier 1 and the worst-ranked as Tier 3.

The TIP Report's annual release remains a topic of widespread interest among international and domestic stakeholders, including Congress. Since the TVPA's enactment 19 years ago, Congress has continued to adjust the requirements associated with how countries are ranked in the TIP Report, as well as the policy consequences of such rankings see Figure 1. These changes were often the result of congressional dissatisfaction with some aspect of the TIP Report:.

A key question is whether changes to the TIP Report's methodology and ranking process, meant to bolster the report's legitimacy and incentivize countries to boost their antitrafficking efforts, also run the risk of increasing the complexity of these factors in a manner that undermines the report's impact. This CRS report describes the legislative provisions that govern the U. Figure 1. Specifically, it requires the Secretary of State to submit to appropriate congressional committees an annual report, due not later than June 1 each year, which describes, on a country-by-country basis, 6.

A sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or. B the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

This definition is largely consistent with the definition of trafficking in persons contained in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children 8 adopted by the U.

TIP Reports use the terms trafficking in persons, severe forms of trafficking in persons, and human trafficking interchangeably, and in recent years have also described human trafficking as modern slavery.

The TIP Report states, "The United States considers 'trafficking in persons,' 'human trafficking,' and 'modern slavery' to be interchangeable umbrella terms that refer to both sex and labor trafficking. It illustratively describes manifestations of human trafficking to include sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, forced labor, bonded labor also known as debt bondage , domestic servitude, forced child labor, and unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers.

Central to the content of the TIP Report, as required by the TVPA, is a set of country lists, based on whether governments are achieving four minimum standards that the law prescribes for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking in persons for information on the minimum standards see the " Standards and Definitions for Determining Country Rankings " section below.

Specifically, the TVPA requires the report to include See " Child Soldier Reporting Requirements " below. Tier 3 countries and child soldier countries are subject to potential aid and other restrictions for details, see section on " Actions Against Governments Failing to Meet Minimum Standards ". The country lists from the TIP Report, which covered developments from April through March , are illustrated by Figure 2 below. Complete country lists are in Appendix A. Figure 2. Source: CRS, based on U.

The TVPA, as amended, requires the Secretary of State to submit to appropriate congressional committees a special watch list composed of countries determined by the Secretary of State to require special scrutiny during the following year.

This requirement to develop a special watch list was first enacted in the TVPA reauthorization of The TVPA mandates that this list be composed of three types of countries: 1 countries upgraded in the most recent TIP Report and now assessed to be fully compliant with the minimum standards from Tier 2 to Tier 1 ; 2 countries upgraded in the most recent TIP Report and now assessed to be making significant efforts toward compliance with the minimum standards from Tier 3 to Tier 2 ; and 3 a subset of Tier 2 countries in which.

This Tier 2 Watch List is composed of the special watch list countries that fall into the third category of countries described above—those that would otherwise be listed as Tier 2 except that the number of victims is large and growing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions, or there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing antitrafficking efforts.

The TVPA, as amended, requires the Secretary of State to submit to appropriate congressional committees by February 1 each year an interim assessment of the progress made by each special watch list country since the last TIP Report. Readers are unable to predict, based solely on these reports, whether a country's ranking will improve, remain the same, or decline in the next TIP Report.

The TVPA, as amended, requires that a country on the special watch list in practice, the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years be subsequently listed among those whose governments do not fully comply and are not making significant efforts to become compliant Tier 3. The requirement to limit the length of time a country may remain on the watch list was enacted in the TVPA reauthorization of The TVPRA, enacted in January , reduced the presidential waiver authority to the current one-year duration from a prior maximum of two consecutive years, effectively reducing the maximum consecutive number of years a country may be listed on the Tier 2 Watch List from four years to three years.

The TVPPRA, also enacted in January , created a new "special rule" for countries that are listed on the Tier 2 Watch List for three or more consecutive years two years and any additional years as a result of a presidential waiver and are subsequently downgraded to Tier 3. These countries, if they are then later returned to the Tier 2 Watch List, may be listed on the Tier 2 Watch List for no more than one consecutive year.

A total of seven countries received waivers to stay on the Tier 2 Watch List for more than two consecutive years see Table 1. All seven countries have now exhausted the new three consecutive year duration limitation. Table 1. Credible evidence in support of downgrade waivers is to be submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs Committees.

Within 30 days after such congressional notification, the TVPA, as amended, also requires the Secretary of State to provide a detailed description of the credible information supporting the determination on a publicly available website maintained by the State Department, and to offer to brief the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees on the written plans for significant efforts to become compliant with the minimum standards.

In particular, the law requires a "detailed explanation" on how "concrete actions" taken or not taken by the country contributed to the listing change, "including a clear linkage between such actions and the minimum standards.

Pursuant to the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of TPA , as amended, the President is also separately required to submit to appropriate congressional committees information on countries upgraded from Tier 3 in the prior year's TIP Report. Pursuant to the TPA, the President must submit detailed descriptions of credible evidence supporting these upgrades.

This includes As discussed above, the TIP Report is the evaluates of each government's commitment to eliminating severe forms of trafficking in persons. Countries are assessed based on whether they are complying with, or making significant efforts to comply with, four minimum standards prescribed by the TVPA, as amended.

While the four minimum standards have not been amended since the TVPA was first enacted, the criteria for evaluating what constitutes serious and sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking, which relate to the fourth standard, have been modified and expanded through multiple reauthorizations of the TVPA since Although these provisions prescribe the means through which the State Department is to evaluate the efforts of foreign governments, State Department officials may exercise considerable discretion in categorizing countries for further discussion, see " Criticisms and Alternatives to the TIP Report.

The TVPA identifies four minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, which governments are expected to achieve: In assessing whether governments are achieving the fourth minimum standard, that of making serious and sustained efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons, the TVPA initially included seven criteria, or indicative factors.

There are currently 12 criteria:. Countries that are not compliant with the four minimum standards can avoid the worst Tier 3 ranking if they are deemed to be making significant efforts to become compliant. In determining whether a government is making significant efforts to become compliant with the four minimum standards, the TVPA requires the Secretary of State to consider the following factors:.

In addition, if the government itself exhibits patterns or policies of trafficking, forced labor, sexual slavery, or child soldiers, the Secretary of State is instructed to consider this as proof of a failure to make significant efforts. Taken in their entirety, the TVPA's prescribed standards and guidelines for country-ranking determinations, and its time duration restrictions and related waiver provisions for consecutive Tier 2 Watch List determinations, create a complex decision-flow process for determining each country's ranking see Figure 3.

Figure 3. The TVPA established that certain types of foreign assistance may not be provided to governments that are not committed to meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking in persons Tier 3 countries :.

It is the policy of the United States not to provide nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance to any government that—. Funding subject to potential restriction includes nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance authorized pursuant to the Foreign Assistance Act of , sales and financing authorized by the Arms Export Control Act AECA , and educational and cultural exchange funding, as well as loans and other funding provided by multilateral development banks and the International Monetary Fund.

Pursuant to the TVPA, nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance subject to aid restriction also includes. In the case of countries that do not receive such nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance , the TVPA authorizes the President to withhold funding for participation by officials or employees of Tier 3 countries in educational and cultural exchange programs. Executive Directors of each multilateral development bank and of the International Monetary Fund to vote against and otherwise attempt to deny loans or other uses of funds to Tier 3 countries.

Between 45 and 90 days after submission of the annual TIP Report due June 1 , the TVPA requires the President to make a determination regarding whether and to what extent antitrafficking aid restrictions are to be imposed on Tier 3 countries during the following fiscal year. Typically issued near the beginning of the fiscal year and published in the Federal Register , the presidential determinations address the following:.

Pursuant to the TVPA, the President may selectively waive aid restrictions for national interest concerns, including by exercising a waiver for one or more specific programs, projects, or activities.

Following the initial presidential determination required by the TVPA, as amended, the President may make additional determinations to waive, in part or in whole, aid restrictions on Tier 3 countries. As part of the President's determinations, the TVPA also requires the President to include a certification by the Secretary of State that no counternarcotics or counterterrorism assistance authorized by the FAA or arms sales and financing authorized by the AECA is intended to be received or used by any agency or official who has participated in, facilitated, or condoned a severe form of trafficking in persons.

Table 2. It was a dazzling accomplishment, and the first time that reporting—a proven human rights enforcement mechanism—was used to attempt to enforce anti-trafficking norms around the world. Only twelve countries were named as Tier 1 countries.

Forty-seven countries were listed under Tier 2, and twenty-three countries were placed in Tier 3. Compare this to the TIP Report. Thirty-one of the countries were ranked as Tier 1 countries in full compliance. Eighty-nine countries were ranked as Tier 2 countries.

Forty-four countries were placed on the Tier 2 Watch List, and twenty-three remained at the lowest ranking of Tier 3.