BPPP, Desiree Alliance, SWOP-NYC and SWANK collaborated to provide written information to the US Department of State for inclusion in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report (the TIP Report). This annual report is intended to illustrate the degree to which the United States and foreign governments comply with the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons” that are prescribed by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

In our written testimony our organizations strongly encouraged the US Department of State to include information in the 2013 TIP report about anti-trafficking policies that have violated the spirit of UPR Recommendation 86 leading to violence and discrimination against sex workers, people in the sex trade and people who are profiled as engaging in prostitution. Such policies include the use of anti-trafficking funding to arrest, detain, incarcerate, deport and harass sex workers and people presumed to be sex workers, their families, and people who are presumed to be their customers. We also noted that the US government still hinders effective, rights based programming domestically and globally by placing politically-driven restrictions on the criteria for organizations that may receive grants under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  Read the full written contribution.