The past year will not be remembered as a great one in the history of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Its engaging, consensus-building chief, Ambassador Lou CdeBaca unexpectedly stepped aside in November, soon after his Deputy was abruptly reassigned. In a delay that speaks volumes about the place of trafficking within the broader US political agenda, President Obama only got around to nominating Cdebaca's successor last week. Even allowing for minimal delays in the typically fraught Senate confirmation process, the tenure of Ambassador-to-be Susan Coppedge is likely to be very short.
Such instability is worrying. The Ambassador and his or her small team of administrators and analysts are responsible for producing the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, a detailed assessment of the performance of every country in the world in combatting human trafficking. Strong leadership is vital – very often the Ambassador must battle State Department colleagues to ensure that the integrity of the assessments is not seriously compromised by other priorities and concerns.
Since it was first issued in 2001, the report has had an immense impact. Many governments are deeply offended at the US taking on the role of global sheriff in relation to an issue as complex as human trafficking. For countries ranked at the very bottom, at stake is more than a sense of pride. A poor ranking automatically puts them under a black diplomatic cloud and renders them subject to a range of economic sanctions.
