UNDER SECRETARY OTERO: Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to
the Department of State. It’s wonderful to have you all here. I want to
especially welcome Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith for being here
with us. Thank you for being here. (Applause.)
Every year, this event brings together committed leaders and
activists from across the anti-trafficking movement, and the enthusiasm
that’s surrounding this rollout shows us the momentum that we have built
in the struggle against modern slavery.
I am Maria Otero. I am the Under Secretary for Civilian Security,
Democracy, and Human Rights. My office oversees the bureaus that help
countries and governments create just societies, societies that are
grounded in democratic principles that guarantee respect for human
rights and that apply the rule of law. Whether we’re helping strengthen
judicial systems or we’re denouncing human rights abuses or helping
build strong law enforcement capacities or combating trafficking in
persons, we’re aiming to help countries protect the individual citizens
in their countries.
Trafficking challenges are one of the problems that we have. And it
is also the one area that deals with one of our most fundamental values.
That is the basic freedom and dignity of every individual. Trafficking
also tears at the very fabric of society. It rips families apart. It
devastates communities. It holds people back from becoming full
participants in their own political processes in their own economies.
And it challenges the ability of countries to build strong justice
systems and transparent governments. That’s why fighting modern slavery
is a priority for the United States. In that fight, we partner with
governments around the world to improve and increase the prosecution of
this crime, to prevent the crime from spreading, and to protect those
individuals who are victimized by it.
While governments bear this responsibility of protecting their
individual citizens, this fight depends on a broader partnership as
well. Without the efforts of civil society, the faith community, the
private sector, we would not be able to advance and we would not be able
to see the advances that the report highlights. The report that we are
issuing today guides our work. It represents the very best knowledge and
information on the state of modern slavery in the world today. It shows
the fruit of partnerships around the world. It shows the strides that
we’ve made in protecting individuals, and it shows how far we yet still
have to go to assure the basic human rights.
I want to thank everyone who has worked this last year to compile
these reports, from the NGOs that submit this information to the
governments that provide us with data, from the diplomats in our
overseas missions, to the staff of the Office of Monitor and Combating
Trafficking in Persons who are here today. And today really is the
culmination of tireless work over many months that they have taken on.
And for that reason, it is really my pleasure and my privilege to be
able to introduce my colleague who runs that office and who has
shepherded and given leadership to this process, our Ambassador-at-Large
to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca. (Applause.)
AMBASSADOR CDEBACA: Thank you, Madam Under
Secretary, for the introduction and for your leadership here at the
State Department. Bringing so many different issues together under this
label of civilian security over the last year has allowed room here in
the State Department and across the U.S. Government for constructive
collaborations, whether we’re dealing with human rights, migration,
criminal justice, war crimes, counterterrorism, or, as today, human
trafficking. Because building democracy, growing economies, unleashing
the full potential of the individual, these things don’t just happen.
They start with people.
Around the world in the last year, we’ve heard those people, their
voices calling, calling out for democracy, for greater opportunity. We
recognize that sound. It’s the sound of hope. And traffickers ensnare
their victims by exploiting that hope, especially the hope of the
vulnerable. “Come with me, I’ll help you start a modeling career. Pay me
$10,000, I’ll get you that job. I love you. I’ll take care of you. Just
do this for us.” As long as the Trafficking in Persons Report is
needed, we will find in its pages account after account of traffickers
peddling false hope.
But that’s not all that we find in the pages of this report because
every year that passes, those false hopes are overtaken more and more by
real hope; the real hope that the modern abolitionist movement
provides. And just as trafficking takes many forms, the way that we
fight slavery today, the way that we provide hope for those who have
been exploited, is growing. It is growing more diverse and more
innovative, and so are the people who are stepping up.
We see it in the private sector, where corporate leaders are using
their business skills. They’re hearing from consumers who don’t want to
buy things tainted by modern slavery. Leaders like CEO Tom Mazzetta.
When he read a report about forced labor in the fishing industry, he
wasn’t just shocked. He acted. He wrote two letters. The first was to
the company he used, until that day, to source calamari. The second was
an open letter to all of his customers telling them that his brand was
his family, his family name, and he would not taint it or his customers
with slavery in his supply chain. We’re inspired by his principled
stand.
We see it among activists like Jada Pinkett Smith and her family, who
have a unique platform from which to act. When her daughter Willow
began asking about these types of subjects, she didn’t just explain it
away as something that happens over there. She got to work. She’s
launching a new website to serve as a resource for victims and survivors
and is an information hub for those who seek to learn more about this
crime. Jada, we thank you for your advocacy.
We see it in people’s day to day lives, like when Aram Kovach was
watching CNN one day. He saw the story of a young boy castrated because
he refused to take part in a begging ring. He wasn’t just horrified by
the reality of modern slavery. Aram did something. He got in touch with
the boy’s family and he paid for him to come to the United States for
surgery. Mr. Kovach we’re moved by your compassion.
And if I can take a moment of personal privilege, we see it in the
men and women who contribute to this report: our colleagues at embassies
around the world, in our regional bureaus here in Washington, and
especially the reports in political affairs team of the Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. We thank you all for your
rigor, your commitment, and the zeal with which you attack this problem.
And we see it ultimately in the victims, the survivors, whether they
choose to become activists or whether they choose to lead a life of
quiet anonymity. When you log on to slaveryfootprint.org – and I hope
you do – and it asks you how many slaves work for you, remember that
those victims are not statistics. It’ll give you a number, but these
people are not numbers. They are people with hopes, with dreams, with
courage, and with names. Remember their names, names like Amina, Maria
Elena, Joel, Ashley. It’s their courage that challenge us to deliver on
this promise, this promise of freedom.
And it’s my pleasure to introduce someone who has never turned away
from that challenge. From the start of this effort, when most people
didn’t want to talk about modern slavery, to this day, when we recommit
ourselves to the vision of a world without slavery, ladies and
gentlemen, the Secretary of State. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you all very
much. And I am delighted to see a standing room only crowd here in the
Benjamin Franklin Room for this very important annual event. I welcome
all of you here to the State Department. And I want to begin by thanking
Ambassador CdeBaca and his team for all the hard work that goes into
this report, and the passion that they bring to the fight against modern
slavery. I would like, Lou, for you and your team to either stand or
wave your hand if you’re already standing. Could we have everyone from –
(applause) – thank you. I so appreciate what you do every day, not just
when we roll out the report, and I’m very proud to be your colleague.
I also want to welcome our 10 TIP heroes, whose work is making a real
difference. You will hear more about each one individually when we
recognize them, but I want, personally, to thank them because they do
remind us that one person’s commitment and passion, one person’s
experience and the courage to share that experience with the world, can
have a huge impact. And I am delighted to welcome all of our TIP heroes
here today. Thank you. (Applause.)
And I will join Lou in thanking Jada Pinkett Smith and Will for being
here, and through you, your daughter. Because, as Lou said, it was
their daughter who brought this issue to Jada’s attention, and I am so
pleased that she has taken on this cause. And we look forward to working
with you.
In the United States today, we are celebrating what’s called
Juneteenth. That’s freedom day, the date in 1865 when a Union officer
stood on a balcony in Galveston, Texas and read General Order Number 3,
which declared, “All slaves are free.” It was one of many moments in
history when a courageous leader tipped the balance and made the world
more free and more just. But the end of legal slavery in the United
States and in other countries around the world has not, unfortunately,
meant the end of slavery.
Today, it is estimated as many as 27 million people around the world
are victims of modern slavery, what we sometimes call trafficking in
persons. As Lou said, I’ve worked on this issue now for more than a
dozen years. And when we started, we called it trafficking. And we were
particularly concerned about what we saw as an explosion of the
exploitation of people, most especially women, who were being quote,
“trafficked” into the sex trade and other forms of servitude. But I
think labeling this for what it is, slavery, has brought it to another
dimension.
I mean, trafficking, when I first used to talk about it all those
years ago, I think for a while people wondered whether I was talking
about road safety – (laughter) – what we needed to do to improve
transportation systems. But slavery, there is no mistaking what it is,
what it means, what it does. And these victims of modern slavery are
women and men, girls and boys. And their stories remind us of what kind
of inhumane treatment we are still capable of as human beings. Some,
yes, are lured to another country with false promises of a good job or
opportunities for their families. Others can be exploited right where
they grew up, where they now live. Whatever their background, they are
living, breathing reminders that the work to eradicate slavery remains
unfinished. The fact of slavery may have changed, but our commitment to
ending it has not and the deeply unjust treatment that it provides has
not either.
Now the United States is not alone in this fight. Many governments
have rallied around what we call the three P’s of fighting modern
slavery: prevention, prosecution, and protection. And this report, which
is being issued today, gives a clear and honest assessment of where all
of us are making progress on our commitments and where we are either
standing still or even sliding backwards. It takes a hard look at every
government in the world, including our own. Because when I became
Secretary of State, I said, “When we are going to be issuing reports on
human trafficking, on human rights that talk about other countries,
we’re also going to be examining what we’re doing,” because I think it’s
important that we hold ourselves to the same standard as everyone else.
Now, this year’s report tells us that we are making a lot of
progress. Twenty-nine countries were upgraded from a lower tier to a
higher one, which means that their governments are taking the right
steps. This could mean enacting strong laws, stepping up their
investigations and prosecutions, or simply laying out a roadmap of steps
they will take to respond.
But this issue and the progress we’ve made are about much more than
statistics on prosecutions and vulnerable populations. It’s about what
is happening in the lives of the girls and women I recently met in
Kolkata. I visited a few months ago and was able to meet with some
extraordinary women and girls who were getting their lives back after
suffering unspeakable abuses. One young girl, full of life, came up and
asked me if I wanted to see her perform some karate moves. And I said,
“Of course.” And the way she stood up so straight and confident, the
pride and accomplishment in her eyes, was so inspiring. This was a child
who’d been born in a brothel to a young mother who had been forced and
sold into prostitution. But when her mother finally escaped and took her
daughter with her, they were out of harm’s way and finally able to make
choices for themselves.
Now I don’t know what’s going to happen to that young girl, whose
image I see in my mind’s eye, in the years and decades ahead. But I do
know that with a little help, her life can be so much better than her
mother’s. And that’s what we need to be focused on, and it’s what we
need to try to do for all victims and survivors.
That’s why in this year’s report, we are especially focused on that
third P, victim protection. And in these pages, you’ll find a lot of
proven practices and innovative approaches to protecting victims. This
is a useful and specific guide for governments looking to scale up their
own efforts. What kind of psychological support might a victim need?
How should immigration laws work to protect migrant victims? How can
labor inspectors learn to recognize the warning signs of traffickers?
And what can you and all of us do to try to help?
When I met with the people who were working with victims in Kolkata, I
met several young women from the United States who had been inspired by
reading about and watching and going online and learning about what was
happening in the efforts to rescue and protect victims. And they were
there in Kolkata, working with organizations, NGOs, and the faith
community, to do their part. So this is a moment for people to ask
themselves not just what government can do to end modern slavery, but
what can I do, what can we do together.
Ultimately, this report reminds us of the human cost of this crime.
Traffickers prey on the hopes and dreams of those seeking a better life.
And our goal should be to put those hopes and dreams back within reach,
whether it’s getting a good job to send money home to support a family,
trying to get an education for oneself or one’s children, or simply
pursuing new opportunities that might lead to a better life. We need to
ensure that all survivors have that opportunity to move past what they
endured and to make the most of their potential.
I’m very pleased that every year we have the chance to honor people
who have made such a contribution in this modern struggle against modern
slavery. And I’m also pleased that this is a high priority for
President Obama and the Obama Administration. It’s something that is not
just political and not just a policy, but very personal and very deep.
You might have seen over the weekend a long story about Mrs. Obama’s
roots going back to the time of our own period of slavery and the family
that nurtured her, which has roots in the fields and the houses of a
time when Americans owned slaves.
So as we recommit ourselves to end modern slavery, we should take a
moment to reflect on how far we have come, here in our country and
around the world, but how much farther we still have to go to find a way
to free those 27 million victims and to ensure that there are no longer
any victims in the future.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
AMBASSADOR CDEBACA: We are joined today by 10
amazing individuals representative of thousands of more amazing
individuals who work so hard to do their part in this fight. And I’d ask
that the TIP heroes from this side of the stage come over and join us
starting with –
SECRETARY CLINTON: Stand over here?
AMBASSADOR CDEBACA: I think we’re going to do it
right over here. Starting with Marcelo Colombo. Marcelo Colombo from
Argentina, in recognition of his profound influence on efforts to
investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases and take a bold stance
against corruption and official complicity. Marcelo Colombo.
(Applause.)
In recognition of her extraordinary commitment to uncovering human
trafficking cases, her innovative strategy to raise public awareness in
spite of limited resources, and a proactive approach to providing
protection services to victims in Aruba, Jeannette Richardson-Baars
(Applause.)
In recognition of her ambitious efforts to strengthen legislative and
criminal justice responses to trafficking in Southeast Asia and her
substantial contribution to identify the core elements of a
comprehensive anti-trafficking model from Australia, Anne Gallagher.
(Applause.)
In recognition of his amazing courage to escape slavery and his
remarkable activism to end human trafficking, raising awareness of labor
exploitation in the fishing industry of Southeast Asia, Vannak Anan
Prum. (Applause.)
In recognition of his unwavering efforts in the face of threats and
acts of violence against him and his family to provide aid to
trafficking victims in the Republic of the Congo, Raimi Vincent Paraiso.
(Applause.)
In recognition of his dedication to victim protection and support and
his tireless work to enlist new partners in anti-trafficking efforts in
Greece, Phil Hyldgaard. (Applause.)
For her compassion and courage in bringing attention to the suffering
of the human trafficking victims in the Sinai and her groundbreaking
projects that identify these abuses, Sister Azezet Habtezghi Kidane.
(Applause.)
For her ongoing and exemplary leadership to increase engagement and
strengthen commitments to fight trafficking in the OSCE region, Judge
Maria Grazia Giammarinaro. (Applause.)
In recognition of her courageous advocacy on behalf of vulnerable
people and her pioneering work to outlaw slavery once and for all in
Mauritania, a country in which she was the first woman lawyer, Fatimata
M’Baye. (Applause.)
The founder of International Justice Mission, an internationally
recognized human rights organization, for his work to preserve rule of
law around the globe, Gary Haugen. (Applause.)
UNDER SECRETARY OTERO: If I could ask Vincent to please come to the podium and speak on behalf of the TIP heroes, please. (Applause.)
MR. PARAISO: Bonjour. (Via interpreter)
Madam Secretary, honorable under secretaries, honorable ambassadors,
heads of diplomatic missions, distinguished guests. On behalf of my
organization, Alto-Afrique Enfants, and of all the heroes here that I
have the honor to represent, I would like to thank the United States
Government for honoring us with this award at this unforgettable moment.
The phenomenon of human trafficking has reached alarming proportions
around the world. My country, the Republic of Congo, and many others
represented at this meeting are unfortunately not spared from this
crime. Therefore, the international community cannot remain silent
against this evil and must continue to respond relentlessly. I would
also like to thank the U.S. embassies in our respective countries for
their advocacy and dialogue with host country governments in the fight
against this phenomenon.
In my career as a medical doctor, the numerous traumatic injuries I
have seen inflicted and cured on child victims of trafficking led me to
stand as a pillar of support for hundreds of children. These child
victims of trafficking have been identified, rescued, protected, and
sometimes supported by our organization in the Republic of the Congo.
This work has led to several kidnapping and assassination attempts
against me by potential traffickers. But it has also filled me with joy
and happiness when, for instance, I heard a Senegalese teenager who I
rescued tell me, “You are my father.”
I have the honor to represent Alto-Afrique Enfants, and we will
continue the fight against traffickers with passion. As for its
commitments to the fight and trafficking and forced labor, Alto will
continue to work jointly with the government, UNICEF, and other
international and national organizations. This is a problem that must be
resolved through a joint effort. Human trafficking is a human rights
violation.
An approach grounded in human rights in the prevention of and the
fight against trafficking has several requirements in both law and
practice. Most of all, victims’ rights must be fully respected and they
must be clearly identified. Finally, these victims are entitled to
justice, reparations, and should be treated with close attention, as
they are vulnerable. Perseverance and collaboration will lead us to
success, meaning the eradication of this phenomenon.
Madam Secretary, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen, I would
like to conclude by stating that I hope we can work together to build a
better future for all children of the world. Thank you. (Applause.)
UNDER SECRETARY OTERO: Merci beaucoup, Vincent. C’est magnifique. C’est tres magnifique.
(Laughter.) Your words are inspiring and your leadership in this
struggle is also inspiring. You and all the TIP heroes are once again
reminding us that the individual actions of each human being has
tremendous impact and that we are all responsible for playing a role in
eradicating this horrible crime that continues to persist in our
societies.
I want to thank you all for joining this event today. The commitment,
the passion, the responsibility that all of you take on and that is
represented in this room, once again reminds us that we are not only
moving in the right direction, but that we are going to make this goal
be within our reach. So thank you very much for being here with us
today. Thank you, Madam Secretary. (Applause.)
