Trafficking in Persons Report

The Trafficking in Persons Report, or the TIP Report, is an annual report issued by the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. It ranks governments based on their perceived efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking.
Ranking system.
The report divides nations into tiers based on their compliance with standards outlined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. These tiers are:
There are also a few special cases (Special Tier) such as Yemen, where the civil conflict and humanitarian crisis make gaining information difficult; and Sint Maarten, where the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma has made reporting difficult.
Criticism.
Some critics of the Trafficking in Persons Report focus on how its methodology could be improved. For example, one recent academic paper suggests how the rankings could better incorporate risk factors of trafficking in order to focus more on prevention. Another critic argues that the Report should better incorporate "international rules that states (including the USA) have collectively developed and freely accepted," rather than focusing on criteria drawn up solely by U.S. politicians.
Other critics more fundamentally question its methodology and sources, such as anthropologist Laura Agustín, who writes that the Report "relies on CIA, police and embassy guesstimates of situations that are not understood the same way across all cultures and social classes."
Hero Acting to End Modern Slavery Award.
As part of the report the Department of State announces the awarding of the Hero Acting to End Modern Slavery Awards to a number of individuals. The first such awards were made in 2004. Awards are made for actions taken to protect victims, bring offenders to justice or to raise awareness of modern slavery. More than 110 individuals from more than 60 countries have been honored so far. Award winners are invited to a large reception in the United States followed by a tour of several American cities.