U.S. Department of Defense
02/13/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 02/13/2023 14:36
Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks Remarks at the President’s Interagency Task Force (PITF) to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking in Persons Meeting (As[...]
Great. Thanks very much, and good afternoon.
Let me add my congratulations to the 2022 Presidential Award recipients, and thank you for your incredibly impactful work.
The Department of Defense takes seriously its role in monitoring and combating human trafficking.
We are focused on expanding trainings, preventing the sale of goods produced by forced or child labor in DoD outlets, and encouraging and empowering survivors.
We are developing specialized anti-human-trafficking training for some of our most important "first responders" - our healthcare professionals and our chaplains.
We are confident these training courses will help key members of DoD's 140,000 healthcare professionals and 2,700 chaplains better recognize and appropriately respond to victims of human trafficking with trauma-informed care.
To ensure that the department is not unintentionally complicit or contributing to human trafficking through the resale of goods produced by forced or child labor, we are developing department-wide guidance to prevent the sale of such goods in DoD's commissaries and exchanges; and to hold ourselves and our contractors to the highest standards in procuring and producing goods, supplies, and services.
Finally, we are continuing to grow our public repository of survivor stories to empower them to reclaim their lives. The repository can be found at ctip.defense.gov slash Survivor Voices.
We added three stories in the first quarter of this year, and we will add at least three more stories in the next several months.
Let me close by extending my thanks to Secretary Blinken for leading the efforts here to end all human trafficking.
Please be assured that Secretary Austin who is in currently Europe, and the entire Department of Defense are "all in" to help.