Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Announces the Justice Department’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking

Justice Department Issues Report as Part of the Commemoration of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

As part of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch today announced the Justice Department’s National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking (National Strategy), as required by the 2015 Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. In addition to this new National Strategy, every year, the Attorney General also submits the Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress and Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons, which details the programs and activities carried out by all federal agencies and sets forth recommended goals for the upcoming year. The most recent report, for FY 2015, is available here. The department has also launched www.justice.gov/humantrafficking. This page will serve as a central destination to learn more about the department’s efforts to combat the scourge of human trafficking.

“Human trafficking is one of the most devastating crimes that we confront,” said Attorney General Lynch.  “The National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking summarizes the work that our many components and our U.S. Attorney's Offices are doing to better help survivors and target traffickers. These efforts encourage increased collaboration within the department as well as between the department and our partners in order to build on our successes as we prepare to take on the work that remains.”

The department will implement and maintain the National Strategy in order to enhance the department’s work to combat human trafficking. The National Strategy sets forth plans to enhance coordination within the department and to develop specific strategies within each federal district to stop human trafficking. The National Strategy includes the following:

• An assessment of the threat presented by human trafficking based on FBI case information.
• An account of the work of the department’s components that are most extensively involved in anti-trafficking efforts, including the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit; the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section; the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices; the FBI; and various grant-making components within the Office of Justice Programs.
• A description of the district-specific strategies developed by each U.S. Attorney’s Office.
• A discussion of human trafficking and anti-trafficking efforts in Indian Country.
• Information about annual spending dedicated to preventing and combating human trafficking.
• A description of plans to encourage cooperation, coordination and mutual support between the private and non-profit sector and the department to combat human trafficking.

Raising awareness, supporting initiatives that prevent human trafficking and bringing justice to those that bring harm to the vulnerable has been a top priority of Attorney General Lynch. The department’s anti-trafficking efforts involve numerous components engaged in a full spectrum of activities: investigations, prosecutions, services for victims, enforcement initiatives to strengthen anti-trafficking partnerships, innovative prevention efforts, capacity-building programs to advance survivor-centered anti-trafficking strategies and grant funding to state, local and tribal authorities and to non-governmental organizations.

To learn more about the report and the department’s efforts to combat human trafficking visit www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.