In a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2012, President Barack Obama called the fight against human trafficking “One of the greatest human rights causes of our time.” Since then, President Obama has continued the United States’ efforts to end all forms of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and trafficking children into soldiering. To further this goal of eradicating trafficking, President Obama created the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. On May 29, 2015, President Obama took further action by establishing the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (“the Council”).
The Council was established by Section 115 of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act and consists of eleven Presidential appointees, each of whom are survivors of human trafficking. The Council’s responsibilities include providing advice and recommendations to the U.S. government, gathering and analyzing data from federal, state, and local agencies regarding different jurisdictions’ policies and programs intended to protect victims of human trafficking, and publishing an annual report discussing the results of this analysis.
The Council published its first annual report on October 18, 2016. The report highlights five areas— “Rule of Law,” Public Awareness, Victim Services, Labor Laws, and Grantmaking—that require careful consideration and improvements. The Council provided an overview of each topic, gave three recommendations to improve federal anti-trafficking policies, and indicated future efforts toward interagency collaboration.
The first section of the report, entitled the “Rule of Law,” recognizes that efforts to address human trafficking are neither universal across jurisdictions nor are they always survivor-centered. To increase the effectiveness of law enforcement in this complex area, the Council recommends intensive, survivor-led training for all federal agencies and collaborating with agencies and organizations to recognize trafficking in clubs across the country.
Next, the Council recognizes the need for “multiple and diverse efforts” to raise public awareness of the various forms of human trafficking and the diverse populations that trafficking affects. The Council recommends that public outreach campaigns focus on convening a more diverse representation of survivors while taking a proactive approach toward identifying those who are at-risk of exploitation. The Council further recommends that licensing authorities, healthcare providers, and schools publicize the national human trafficking hotline and create target campaigns to specifically address their communities. Furthermore, the Council also suggests that all public awareness campaigns be trauma-informed.
Third, the Council provides recommendations for victim services providers. It recognizes that the best service providers consider the survivor’s “holistic wellbeing” in a culturally-sensitive setting. The Council focuses specifically on survivor’s housing needs, recommending that local public housing agencies establish housing preferences for survivors of human trafficking. Furthermore, the Report highlights the importance of “shift[ing] the language currently used in survivor services” to create a safe, culturally-sensitive, and trauma-informed environment for survivors. Here, the Council reiterates the importance of a trauma-informed approach focusing on the fact that victims of human trafficking have experienced trauma in their lives which influences their behaviors and coping mechanisms. By utilizing this approach, advocates and healthcare providers can reinforce the humanity of trafficking survivors and help them to begin the healing process.
The Council also provides recommendations for improving labor laws. Focusing on the hospitality, agriculture, and conduction industry, the Council once again emphasizes a survivor-informed approach, stating, “Survivors of human trafficking have firsthand experience with traffickers and are experts in the field.” Therefore, the Report suggests, listening to survivors is the only way to effectively combat trafficking. The Council also recommends that all employment assistance programs remove their age requirements and background checks to properly accommodate for survivors of trafficking.
Finally, recognizing that the implementation of its recommendations will require resources, the Council suggests that the Senior Policy Operating Group to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (SPOG) provide funding for survivors to participate in anti-trafficking work. The Council recommends that this funding be used to enable survivors to participate in anti-trafficking trainings and to receive economic opportunities like vocational trainings, leadership trainings, and scholarships to attend school. Furthermore, the Council suggests that survivors have a voice in the grantmaking process in each agency and pushes for inter-agency collaboration.
The CSE Institute commends the Council’s survivor-led approach and its emphasis on implementing trauma-informed policies and procedures. By encouraging these approaches, the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking’s First Annual Report will move federal and local agencies toward best practices for educating the public about the reality of human trafficking, preventing trafficking from occurring, and serving those who have survived the trauma of all forms of human trafficking.
Hear a NPR interview with Evelyn Chumbow, a member of the Council.
Hear Secretary of State John Kerry discuss the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report.