DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC SCHEDULE MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2013

DEPARTMENT OF STATE
PUBLIC SCHEDULE
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2013

SECRETARY JOHN KERRY
10:00 a.m. Secretary Kerry hosts a swearing-in ceremony for the U.S. Ambassador to Burkina Faso Tulinabo Mushingi, at the Department of State.
11:30 a.m. Secretary Kerry hosts a swearing-in ceremony for the Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel, at the Department of State.
12:00 p.m. Secretary Kerry meets with General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Department of State.
3:30 p.m. Secretary Kerry meets with Ambassadors-designate, at the Department of State.

AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LUIS CDEBACA
Ambassador CdeBaca is on foreign travel in Bangkok, Thailand through August 7.
11:15 a.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with representatives of the Royal Thai Government on trafficking issues, at the ILEA campus in Bangkok, Thailand.
2:00 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with representatives of the Thai Department of Fisheries, in Bangkok, Thailand.
3:30 p.m. LOCAL Ambassador CdeBaca meets with Thai Minister of Social Development and Human Security Santi Prompat, in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Fight Against Modern Slavery: Fulfilling the Promise of the Emancipation Proclamation

By Luis CdeBaca
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca serves as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and directs the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

On New Year's Day, our nation celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. President Obama commemorated the anniversary with two Presidential Proclamations: one that celebrates the Emancipation Proclamation and reaffirms the timeless principles it upheld, and a second that declares January 2013 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and calls on all Americans to recognize the vital role we can play in ending all forms of slavery.

President Obama referred to the Emancipation Proclamation as having "brought a new day -- that 'all persons held as slaves' would thenceforth be forever free. We wrote that promise into our Constitution. We spent decades struggling to make it real." Yet more than a century and a half later, a great deal of work still remains to fulfill the promise of freedom and restore hope to the millions who are still enslaved today.

Globally, as many as 27 million are victimized in modern slavery. This exploitation occurs every day in our cities and towns. It taints the global supply chains of the products we rely on every day. In countries across the world, it tears apart families, undermines communities, creates instability, and threatens the rule of law.