Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the release of the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) on Tuesday in Washington, DC, a US embassy press statement said.
This year’s TIP Report theme is “The Promise of Freedom.” The theme encourages every government, including the United States, to commit to fulfilling the promise of freedom from slavery embodied in modern anti-trafficking laws and international protocols by punishing traffickers, providing services and legal recourse to victims and preventing the crime of trafficking from occurring.
As required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), the TIP Report assesses governments around the world on their efforts to combat modern slavery. The 12th installment, this year's Report includes narratives of 186 countries and territories. The United States is among the countries and territories.
Bangladesh was upgraded to “Tier 2” in the 2012 TIP Report in recognition of the Government of Bangladesh’s important accomplishments in the past year, including enactment of the landmark Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act, which the President of Bangladesh put into effect as an ordinance in December 2011 and the Bangladesh Parliament passed as law in February 2012, as well as the launch of a National Plan of Action for Combating Human Trafficking in May 2012.
These steps ensure Bangladesh has a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder legal framework to address all forms of trafficking, including labor trafficking and trafficking of men.
Bangladesh’s immediate challenge and opportunity will be to ensure effective implementation and enforcement of the new law and plan of action to develop an effective regime of prevention, protection and prosecution.
The U.S. Government strongly supports the Government of Bangladesh’s efforts to address trafficking and will continue its support through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s program Actions for Combating Trafficking in Persons (ACT).
ACT works with NGO partners such as Winrock International and with the Ministry of Home Affairs to develop a comprehensive approach to the prosecution of traffickers, protection of victims and prevention of the crime of trafficking.
BBN/SSR/SI-20June12-9:04 am (BST)
