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Human Trafficking: The Basics
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…
Category: Policy More entries by Mark Lagon | Comments (7)
Posted by DipNote Bloggers on Mar 28, 2008 - 05:40 PM
Category: Travel More entries by DipNote Bloggers | Comments (1)
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…
Category: Policy More entries by Sean McCormack | Comments (11)
Posted by DipNote Bloggers on Mar 28, 2008 - 12:20 PM
![Volunteers take inventory of aid donated by USAID Jan. 12, 2005 in Jakarta, Indonesia. [AP]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/UNGA/field/2008_0328_usiad_bh_m.jpg)
Does the U.S. spend too much or too little on foreign aid?
Category: Question of the Week More entries by DipNote Bloggers | Comments (18)
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…
Category: Near East and Asia More entries by John Smith | Comments (11)