Trafficking in Persons Interim Assessment: US Dept of State Press Release.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, passed by the
Congress and signed into law by the President in December 2003,
requires the Department of State to submit to the Congress an Interim
Assessment of the progress made in combating trafficking in persons
(TIP) by those countries placed on the Special Watch List in
September 2006. The evaluation period covers the six months since the
release of the June 2006 annual report.
This year, 39 countries are on the Special Watch List. These
countries either (1) had moved up a tier in the 2006 TIP Report over
the last year's Report, or (2) were ranked on Tier 2 in the 2006 TIP
Report, but (a) had failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts
to combat TIP from the previous year, (b) were placed on Tier 2
because of commitments to carry out additional future actions over
the coming year, or (c) had a significant or significantly increasing
number of trafficking victims. Thirty-four of the 39 countries on the
Special Watch List are in the second category--ranked as Tier 2 Watch
List--including two countries initially ranked as Tier 3 in the June
2006 TIP Report, but reassessed as Tier 2 Watch List countries by the
State Department in September 2006 (Belize and Laos). Attached to
this Interim Assessment is an overview of the tier process.
In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool
by which to gauge the anti trafficking progress of countries which
may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2007 TIP
Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It
is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions
a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in
the June 2006 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions
undertaken between the beginning of May--the cutoff for data covered
in the June TIP Report--and November. Readers are requested to refer
back to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large scale efforts
and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular
country.
Tier Process
The Department placed each of the countries included on the 2006
Trafficking in Persons Report into one of the three lists, described
here as tiers, mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as
amended (TVPA). This placement reflects an evaluation of a
government's actions to combat trafficking. The Department first
evaluates whether the government fully complies with the TVPRA's
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Countries whose
governments do so are placed in Tier 1. For other countries, the
Department considers whether their governments made significant
efforts to bring themselves into compliance. Countries whose
governments are making significant efforts to meet the minimum
standards are placed in Tier 2. Those countries whose governments do
not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making
significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3. Finally, the
Special Watch List criteria are considered and, if applicable, Tier 2
countries are placed on the Tier 2 Special Watch List.
The Tiers
Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Act's
minimum standards.
Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the
Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring
themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 Special Watch List: Countries whose governments do not fully
comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant
efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards,
and:
a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is
very significant or is increasing significantly; or
b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to
combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year;
or
c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to
bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on
commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the
next year.
Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the
minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
As required by the TVPA, in making tier determinations between Tiers
2 and 3, the Department considers the overall extent of human
trafficking in the country; the extent of government noncompliance
with the minimum standards, particularly the extent to which
government officials have participated in, facilitated, condoned, or
are otherwise complicit in trafficking; and what reasonable measures
the government would have to take to come into compliance with the
minimum standards within the government's resources and capabilities.
[other countries omitted]
EUROPE
Armenia
The Government of Armenia made some progress in its efforts to combat
trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 Report; however,
key deficiencies in the government's anti-trafficking response have
yet to be addressed. In July 2006 the government enacted a statute to
clarify its trafficking law and strengthen the accompanying
penalties, and NGO-run shelters assisted more trafficking victims
during the last six months. The government, however, neither
developed nor implemented a national referral policy. It also did not
aggressively sentence traffickers under its trafficking statute and
it failed to investigate vigorously ongoing allegations of corruption
and prosecute officials for complicity in trafficking.
The Government of Armenia took some steps to increase awareness on
victim identification by assisting in the publication of an IOM
manual for Armenian consular officers stationed abroad, and it worked
with a local NGO to publish a manual for its health and social
workers. While the number of victims assisted by NGO shelters in
Armenia almost doubled over the previous year, the rate of law
enforcement referrals to these shelters remains low; out of 23
victims assisted since March 1, 2006, about one-third were referred
by the government. In July 2006, the government enacted a new statute
to ensure that traffickers in Armenia are convicted under trafficking
statutes rather than less serious pimping statutes, which carry lower
penalties. Since March 2006, the government investigated 14
trafficking cases, resulting in six convictions. All six traffickers
received sentences between four and five years; the government
utilized its old trafficking statute, which carries penalties lighter
than those in the new trafficking statute, under a grandfathering
clause because the crimes occurred before enactment of the new
statute. Although the government has yet to prosecute any acts of
trafficking-related complicity, in December 2006 it restructured its
anti-trafficking unit in response to ongoing allegations of
high-level corruption.
[Groong note: complete report is at:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rpt/78948.htm --KP ]
This material was taken from www.antitrafficking.am
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