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 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the release of the 11th annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" at the Department of State on Monday.

Human trafficking involves the dehumanizing practice of holding another in compelled service through force, fraud or coercion, be it physical or psychological. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said, "Let's call it what it is - modern slavery." The U.S. government estimates that each year, millions of men, women, and children are held in servitude worldwide in nearly every country. Labor trafficking and sex trafficking are not limited by gender, ethnicity, or geographical area. Instead, these forms of modern slavery impact individuals and societies across the globe, responding to market demands, vulnerabilities in laws, weak criminal penalties, corruption, natural disasters, and economic instability.

The theme of this year's report, "The Decade of Delivery," calls on all governments, including the United States, to deliver on the anti-trafficking standards set forth in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention on Transnational Crime over the next decade, whether or not the countries are parties to the Protocol. Over the course of the last ten years, governments around the world have crafted responses to trafficking. While most governments have enacted anti-trafficking legislation and have adopted anti-trafficking frameworks, it is time for all governments to ensure substantial and lasting impact on this crime by improving their law enforcement and victim protection responses.

Additionally, a critical sub-theme of this year's Report is, "Moving Beyond Tier 1 - Advancing the Global Fight Against Modern Slavery." The 2011 Report calls on all governments, even those ranked Tier 1, to reinvigorate their fight against trafficking and move toward guaranteeing that victims have true access to justice and assistance, that traffickers are held accountable, and that targeted prevention efforts are employed.