 It is indeed an honor to be with you today and to address this imminent assembly, and it's really a privilege to be able to return to Rwanda, a country of luster past, beauty and tremendous resilience. I first came to Rwanda ten years ago to conduct a witness tampering investigation for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. And as you can imagine, the stories that I heard were heart-rending. How does one comfort a woman who describes surviving a churchyard massacre by hiding underneath a pile of dead bodies, and who went to the priest the next day for sanctuary, only to be turned away? How does one promise justice to another woman who still bears the scars of the machete in her skull, and who collapses in tears as she recounts how she was betrayed to the inner Rambamway by someone who promised to smuggle her to safety? These and so many other witnesses shared their stories with me with a faith, a faith that first and foremost that justice could be achieved, and that others would be helped if they shared their pain. Serving with the Tribunal brought me face to face with what can happen to both the country and to the soul of its people when the rule of law collapses and when justice cannot be found. But it also, it also reminded me of the fundamental human rights that our community of nations must defend and protect. It reaffirmed my unwavering belief that upholding the rule of law is a government's foremost responsibility, a responsibility that must be stronger than the desire for expedience, for power, or even for vengeance. Individuals in every nation have the right to a government that prizes their citizens self-determination over its own desire for influence and power, and the right to expect that no organization and no individual is above the law. And that's what the Tribunal signified. Through the indictments of 93 perpetrators and the uncovering of very truths, it demonstrated what the family of nations can accomplish when we find the moral resolve and the political will to work together. And it is that same commitment to collaboration and that same understanding of universal rights, that fuels this important organization today. Interpol, with 190 member countries and an unshakable devotion to the rule of law, Interpol stands as an invaluable conduit for mutual assistance between law enforcement agencies across the world and a critical facilitator for international cooperation in matters of liberty, opportunity, and human rights. You are ensuring secure global police information sharing systems. You're providing around-the-clock support and operational assistance. You are driving innovation, fueling improvement, and you are expanding international capabilities to identify crimes and to pursue wrongdoers. In all of your efforts, you were focused on working collaboratively, working with others to enhance the foundations and the infrastructure essential to the work that we all share. That work, that work that is so important to all of us, involves action against some of the most important and complex challenges of our time. You provide a network to coordinate counterterrorism aid and a partnership to help combat the threat of foreign terrorist fighters. A resource that is invaluable as we seek to stem illicit travel by individuals moving to and from conflict zones in Syria and Afghanistan. You join nations with one another in protecting cyber security, helping to deprive cyber criminals of their mistaken sense of impunity and ensure that wrongdoers are held accountable. An effort that becomes more important every day. You assemble information on common challenges and best practices of law enforcement, helping nations to learn from one another and strengthen all of our procedures. In fact, the Interpol Office in the United States has begun to offer Interpol members access to files in the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Crime Information Center. Starting with data on wanted persons, firearms, and stolen vehicles in order to assist police organizations worldwide. And you are working to protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society by partnering with law enforcement agencies at all levels to exchange intelligence on human trafficking and to support action against those who exploit human beings, human beings for financial gain. This last issue, a crime that is nothing less than modern day slavery, is one of my highest priorities as Attorney General of the United States and is one of our foremost challenges as an international community. Because as we all know, human trafficking is a largely hidden crime. It's difficult to precisely estimate how many millions of women, men, and children are its victims. But we do know that it occurs in countries all over the world, including the United States. It is a crime that can take so many forms from forced physical labor to forced sex to child soldiers. And whose victims range from domestic workers to school children to farm workers to countless others. And with its ties to organized crime, is preying on flows of migrants and its complex financing schemes, human trafficking is a truly global problem that demands a truly global response. Now 15 years ago, a framework for that United effort was created by two documents, the United Nations Polaroid Protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons and the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act, or TVPA. Working together, these instruments acknowledged psychological coercion as a common factor in involuntary servitude. They recognized the effectiveness of holistic approaches involving protection, prosecution, and prevention, and they articulated the need for international collaboration in alleviating this heinous crime. In the new era of resolve ushered in by the TVPA and the Polaroid Protocol, Interpol. Yes, Interpol has been at the forefront of the global crusade against human trafficking. Whether developing tools and systems to help the global law enforcement community share intelligence or partnering with bodies like the Organization of American States to pool resources and exchange best practices or conducting operations like the one last June in the Ivory Coast that led to the arrest of 25 suspects and the rescue of more than 75 children. Interpol has helped dismantle trafficking networks. Interpol has shut down illegal labor operations, and Interpol has helped to apprehend smugglers and kidnappers, and most importantly, Interpol has helped to care for the survivors. Now, through efforts like these, the international community has indeed come a long way in the last 15 years, but the fact that millions of individuals remain in forced labor reminds us of how far we still have to go. In addition to the persistent scope of the problem, new challenges are emerging, particularly the rise of the Internet as a forum for traffickers, criminal gangs reliance on child-sense trafficking as a revenue stream. As we seek to develop innovative, comprehensive, and nimble responses to these evolving threats, we must find ways to work even more closely together in order to end this affront to our values and stop this crime against humanity. Now, I'm proud to say that the United States is deeply engaged in combating this devastating threat. Under my predecessor and your friend, Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. Department of Justice joined the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security in launching the Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team Initiative to create specialized units of attorneys and agents from across the federal government, enabling us to more effectively apprehend, identify, and prosecute human traffickers as well as those who offer them material support. I was proud to announce earlier this year that we would be expanding that initiative into new cities to bring to bear the full weight of our law enforcement capabilities and investigative expertise. Just last month, in close conjunction with state and local law enforcement agencies, the FBI conducted its ninth annual Operation Cross Country, an initiative against those who traffic in children for sexual exploitation, resulting in the arrest of hundreds, literally hundreds, of sex traffickers. Through the Department's Enhanced Collaborative Model Program, we've been able to give municipalities throughout the United States tens of millions of dollars in grant funding to bring together law enforcement and victim services providers to not only ensure that the traffickers were brought to justice, but to fully address all of the issues faced by the survivors in a holistic, comprehensive, and victim-centered environment. Now, these are important steps forward, and I truly hope that in the months and years ahead, we will continue to join together to build on our own achievements and our own nations as well as around the world. And we all know that that work will not be easy, but it is deeply, deeply necessary. This country, through its history and this organization, through its design, understands the importance of making progress one individual at a time, as difficult as it may be. Every trafficker brought to justice represents a victory against inhumanity and a safer world for all nations. Every survivor pulled from the clutches of a trafficking organization is a human life with a new opportunity to imagine his or her own destiny. And every achievement that we make together is a validation of our common mission to protect the rule of law. Now, when I shared my experiences at the Rwanda Tribunal with friends some years ago, one told me that the images painted by my words made him despair, literally despair of the human race. Surely such evil, he said, condemned mankind to a life that was indeed nasty, brutish, and short. But I was not discouraged, and I was compelled to explore why in order to answer him. And it is because when we are confronted with the admittedly irrefutable evidence of man's inhumanity to man, be it the betrayal of genocide or the scourge of human trafficking, be it the destructive impetus of terrorism or the corruption of cyberspace, we turn to the law. Not because the law is perfect, but because it is the instrument through which we forge justice fairly, impartially, and transparently, even in the face of horrific crimes. It is how we ensure that no one, no one receives preferential treatment and that all, all receive equal protection. It is how we honor the memories of the fallen, and how we assure survivors that they are not alone. It's how we punish those responsible for unspeakable crimes and how we ensure that the innocent are not falsely accused or wrongly convicted. And ultimately, ultimately, it is how we create a better future, not only for the powerful, but for every citizen, for every citizen and all of those who inhabit our own nations and around the world. Now as we gather here today, let us resolve to remember our part in that effort. Let us pledge to stand together in this fight and let us continue every day to pursue our mission of a safer world, to advance our vision of a more just society and to hold close our hope of a brighter future for all. Thank you for letting me come and address you for a few moments this morning. Thank you for coming together to work together and learn together and advance our common goal. And thank you for holding so close the international rule of law. Have an excellent conference.