Posted by Mark Lagon on Apr 01, 2008 - 11:55 AM
![Ambassador Lagon Visits BICE School in Cote d’Ivoire. [State Dept. photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/UNGA/field/2008_0401_trafficking_bh_m.jpg)
Every day, all over the world, people are coerced into bonded labor, exploited in domestic servitude, and enslaved in agricultural work and in factories. The majority of transnational victims are females trafficked into prostitution.
We estimate that approximately 800,000 people are trafficked internationally each year; millions more are enslaved in their own countries. Approximately eighty percent are women and girls, and up to half are minors.
In 2000, the U.S. Congress passed, and the President signed, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which created the office I now head. This legislation legally defines ‘severe forms of human trafficking in persons' as involving…
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Posted by DipNote Bloggers on Mar 28, 2008 - 05:40 PM
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Posted by Sean McCormack on Mar 28, 2008 - 12:57 PM
![Secretary Rice during an interview with Nicholas Kralev of the Washington Times March 27, 2008. [WT]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/UNGA/field/2008_0328_rice_bv_m.jpg)
I wanted to share with you an excerpt from Secretary Rice's interview yesterday with the Washington Times. I believe it is instructive to consider her responses to questions about race in America in the context of our administration's commitment to promote democracy around the globe. While I read some commentary questioning our commitment to democracy and human rights promotion, I also hear plenty of criticism on the other hand that we come across too often as wagging our fingers at countries struggling with democratic reform. So while we push, prod, cajole, criticize and praise others, we should…
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Posted by John Smith on Mar 27, 2008 - 04:59 PM
![Aid Received: A Baghdad restaurant owner thanks Maj. Sharon Falke. [USAID]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/UNGA/field/2008_0327_prt_bh_m.jpg)
March 14, 2008
Hello, all. I’m a ePRT team leader in southern Baghdad. An ePRT means that you’re embedded with a military unit and collectively you address issues of governance. In my particular area, people have just gained their freedoms. However, with cooperative effort, we’ve been able to make some very good inroads.
It began with -- of course, like anything that we do in life, relationships. And the Iraqi people believe in relationships. So the time spent with tribal leaders, people in the community, and governance officials is important. They want to get to know you just as you need to get to know them. And then the relationship builds and there’s a trust and that trust is based on…
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Posted by Colleen Graffy on Mar 25, 2008 - 01:38 PM
![Colleen Graffy at Veszprem University in Veszprem, Hungary March 15, 2008. [State Dept. photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/UNGA/field/2008_0324_hungary_bh_m.jpg)
"Hmm... Now what exactly is public diplomacy"? That is the question I am often asked.
I describe public diplomacy as the art of communicating a country's policies, values and culture to other peoples. It is an attempt to explain why we have decided on certain measures, and beyond that, to explain who we are.
My recent trip to Hungary might offer some insights into what public diplomacy is all about.
Before the trip I met with the Hungarian Ambassador to the U.S., Ambassador Dr. Ferenc Somogyi. We discussed how we might increase student exchanges--we…
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