The 2019 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released last week. Rightly so, Thailand remained at its previous ranking of Tier 2. This ranking is reserved for countries that do not meet the minimum standards to address human trafficking but are making efforts to do so. Maintaining the Tier 2 status is consistent with the Thai Seafood Working Group’s recommendation, yet the U.S. government missed an opportunity to focus Thai authorities and businesses on the structural changes needed to prevent labor trafficking in the country.

Today, Juan Orlando Hernandez takes the oath of office as President of Honduras with the full support of President Trump – despite overwhelming evidence of election irregularities and allegations of fraud in last November’s presidential election in Honduras. This past week, Hondurans young and old took to the streets in a nationwide strike to denounce their stolen democracy, determined to liberate their country from what they call a de-facto dictatorship. Hernandez’s National Party came to power in a 2009 military coup d’état and continues its violent reign today, supported and funded by the United States. 

As Ivanka Trump attends the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India this week, she will speak as a representative of the US government with experience as an entrepreneur, but not as a representative of the apparel company she founded, with wholesale revenues of $47 million and production orders in India and around the globe.  It’s not clear which role, however, is better for helping Ms.

There is a thirst for truth, accuracy and transparency among the public in our current political climate, and global multinationals are no exception to those expectations.