Each year, the U.S. Department of State honors outstanding individuals around the world who are fighting to end human trafficking.

2021 TIP REPORT HEROES GLOBAL NETWORK

 

Who are the TIP Report Heroes?

In the Unit­ed States, the land­mark fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion which defined and out­lawed the crime of human traf­fick­ing, the Traf­fick­ing Vic­tims Pro­tec­tion Act (TVPA), was first passed in 2000 and has been reau­tho­rized sev­er­al times. Every year since its pas­sage, the U.S. Depart­ment of State has released the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons (TIP) Report. The TIP Report is the pri­ma­ry diplo­mat­ic and diag­nos­tic tool used by the Unit­ed States to guide rela­tions with for­eign gov­ern­ments on human traf­fick­ing. Through the TIP Report, the Depart­ment of State assess­es coun­tries based on their gov­ern­men­t’s efforts to com­ply with the “min­i­mum stan­dards for the elim­i­na­tion of traf­fick­ing” found in Sec­tion 108 of the TVPA. A coun­try is placed in Tier 1 if the gov­ern­ment ful­ly com­plies with the min­i­mum stan­dards. A Tier 2 or Tier 2 Watch List rank­ing indi­cates that the gov­ern­ment does not ful­ly com­ply with the min­i­mum stan­dards, but is mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant efforts to do so. Tier 3, the low­est rank­ing, is reserved for those coun­tries whose gov­ern­men­t’s do not ful­ly com­ply with the min­i­mum stan­dards and are not mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant efforts to do so. The TIP Report has become a pow­er­ful tool to advance anti-traf­fick­ing efforts around the world and is con­sid­ered by some to be the inter­na­tion­al gold stan­dard in pro­mot­ing anti-traf­fick­ing account­abil­i­ty by governments.

Since 2004, the Depart­ment of State has hon­ored indi­vid­u­als around the world who have devot­ed their lives to the fight against human traf­fick­ing. These indi­vid­u­als, “TIP Report Heroes Act­ing to End Mod­ern-day Slav­ery,” are pio­neer­ing NGO work­ers, law­mak­ers, police offi­cers, and advo­cates who are com­mit­ted to end­ing mod­ern slav­ery no mat­ter the cost. Since 2009, the TIP Report Heroes have been invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in a State Depart­ment-spon­sored, two-week vis­it to the Unit­ed States, where the Sec­re­tary of State per­son­al­ly hon­ors them at the annu­al release of the TIP Report in Wash­ing­ton, DC. Fol­low­ing the event, the TIP Report Heroes trav­el to addi­tion­al U.S. cities to meet with their coun­ter­parts around the coun­try to share their sto­ries and engage on anti-traf­fick­ing efforts. The recip­i­ents come from diverse back­grounds, and share an incred­i­ble ded­i­ca­tion to assist traf­fick­ing vic­tims and bet­ter address this glob­al crime.