U.S. Ambassador Richmond on Human Trafficking

On Saturday, February 5, former U.S. Ambassador John Cotton Richmond collaborated with the Global Center for Women and Justice for a discussion on global human trafficking trends, supply chains, and risk mitigation in the Seymour Sanctuary at Vanguard University.

It was an event that informed Orange County residents of what the current world powers are doing to end human trafficking in light of COVID restrictions, and what we can do to create change in our communities and combat human trafficking in our daily lives.

Ambassador Richmond is the former U.S Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons for the U.S. Department of State, which is the highest position of power one can have in the U.S. government that is entirely dedicated to fighting human trafficking.

He is also currently a partner at Denton’s Federal Regulatory and Compliance Practice. Ambassador Richmond co-founded the Human Trafficking Institute, which empowers law enforcement such as prosecutors and police to be trauma-informed and victim-centered in their methods to not only bring traffickers to justice, but also to treat the trafficked with care and respect.

At this event, Ambassador Richmond shared a presentation on current actions that world nations are taking to combat human trafficking in their businesses and supply chains. For example, in June 2021, the German Federal Parliament passed the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, which requires businesses and companies to ensure that the supply chains they used are not guilty of any human trafficking or human rights violations, develop a procedural policy statement on their human rights strategy, create and use a complaint mechanism for others to report possible human rights violations or human trafficking risks, and file yearly reports stating that they fulfilled their due diligence obligations.

This will be enacted starting in January 2023; while this new mandate is only applicable in Germany, it sets a good example for other countries to follow, and with the help of the United Nations, it is likely that other countries will follow suit with similar mandates in the coming years.

In this presentation, he shared the three P’s: prevention, protection, and prosecution. Richmond emphasized the importance of preventing human trafficking within businesses and supply chains and being aware of potential human trafficking of businesses and supply chains we may want to purchase from.

Richmond also discussed the importance prosecuting traffickers without sacrificing the physical, mental, and emotional protection of human trafficking victims. Anyone who would like to learn more about local and global human trafficking prevention and how we can all do our part in combatting human trafficking should consider attending events put on by the Global Center of Women and Justice.

One of the GCWJ’s key goals is to study the issues in order to prevent them. Hearing from a former U.S. Ambassador who had been in the highest place of authority for combatting human trafficking was highly educational and impactful.