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On December 3, 2021, the White House released the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (Action Plan), advancing a comprehensive anti-trafficking agenda by strengthening prevention efforts, protecting individuals who have experienced trafficking through intervention and support, and holding traffickers accountable through prosecution. To effectively combat human trafficking, the Action Plan emphasizes the importance of collaboration as a core component of its framework and calls upon agencies across the U.S. Government to synergize anti-trafficking efforts at the national level. Multiple agencies and offices within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will work with federal, state, tribal, and local partners; non-government organizations; and private sector stakeholders to strengthen prevention, protection, and prosecution efforts on human trafficking.

The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 established the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (“the Council”) as a formal platform for individuals with lived experience to provide advice and recommendations to the Senior Policy Operating Group and the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking (PITF). As a member of these coordinating bodies, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implements the Council’s agency-specific recommendations and those for PITF agencies at large. This Information Memorandum summarizes the Council’s past recommendations and overviews implementation efforts by the HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The status of each recommendation relating to ACF is available in the Appendix.

This Information Memorandum (IM) highlights the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) contributions to human trafficking research, gaps in evidence, and open access policies.