Title 22, Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-110
§4028 Training for Foreign Service Officers
Title 22 › CHAPTER 52 — FOREIGN SERVICE › SUBCHAPTER VII — CAREER DEVELOPMENT, TRAINING, AND ORIENTATION › § 4028
Summary
The Secretary of State must include specific training in the regular Foreign Service training given after January 1, 1999. With help from officials like the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, the trafficking office director, and the director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, the training must teach internationally recognized human rights, religious freedom, and trafficking rules and U.S. policy. Human-rights instruction must be required for officers who report on human rights and for chiefs of mission. Religious freedom training must be taught to all officers (including entry-level), before overseas postings, and to outgoing deputy chiefs of mission and ambassadors, and the Shultz Center had to run this training not later than one year after December 16, 2016. The training must also cover trafficking in persons (including parts of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000) and, for officers sent to countries with or at risk of mass atrocities (as the Secretary decides after consulting the Director of National Intelligence and civil society), how to spot escalation, prevent atrocities, and respond. The Secretary must also require refugee-law and religious-persecution training for anyone seeking to become a U.S. consular officer and for staff who review refugee admission requests. Chiefs of mission, deputy chiefs, and others who assess child soldier use or help write the Human Rights Report must get training about child soldiers and the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008. Economic and commercial officers, chiefs of mission, and their deputies must get training on trade and market access, commercial advocacy, and U.S. foreign economic policy, including what government support is available from agencies like the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce, the Export-Import Bank, Millennium Challenge Corporation, Trade and Development Agency, Treasury, USAID, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. Finally, officers assigned to international organizations or to negotiate multilateral agreements must get special training on diplomacy at those institutions either before their posting or within the first year.
Full Legal Text
Title 22, §4028
Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)Human rights, religious freedom, and human trafficking training
(1)In general
The Secretary of State, with the assistance of other relevant officials, such as the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom appointed under section 6411(b) of this title, the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, and the director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, shall establish as part of the standard training provided after January 1, 1999, for officers of the Service, including chiefs of mission, instruction in the field of internationally recognized human rights. Such training shall include—
(A)instruction on international documents and United States policy in human rights, which shall be mandatory for all members of the Service having reporting responsibilities relating to human rights and for chiefs of mission;
(B)instruction on the internationally recognized right to freedom of religion, the nature, activities, and beliefs of different religions, and the various aspects and manifestations of violations of religious freedom;
(C)instruction on international documents and United States policy on trafficking in persons, including provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (division A of Public Law 106–386; 22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) which may affect the United States bilateral relationships; and
(D)for Foreign Service Officers who will be assigned to a country experiencing or at risk of mass atrocities, as determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence and relevant civil society organizations, instruction on recognizing patterns of escalation and early warning signs of potential atrocities, and methods of preventing and responding to atrocities, including conflict assessment methods, peacebuilding, mediation for prevention, early action and response, and appropriate transitional justice measures to address atrocities.
(2)Religious freedom training
(A)In general
In carrying out the training required under paragraph (1)(B), the Director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center shall, not later than the one year after December 16, 2016, conduct training on religious freedom for all Foreign Service officers, including all entry level officers, all officers prior to departure for posting outside the United States, and all outgoing deputy chiefs of mission and ambassadors. Such training shall be included in— (i)
(ii)the courses required of every Foreign Service officer prior to a posting outside the United States, with segments tailored to the particular religious demography, religious freedom conditions, and United States strategies for advancing religious freedom, in each receiving country; and
(iii)the courses required of all outgoing deputy chiefs of mission and ambassadors.
(B)Development of curriculum
In carrying out the training required under paragraph (1)(B), the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, in coordination with the Director of the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center and other Federal officials, as appropriate, and in consultation with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom established under section 6431(a) of this title, shall make recommendations to the Secretary of State regarding a curriculum for the training of United States Foreign Service officers under paragraph (1)(B) on the scope and strategic value of international religious freedom, how violations of international religious freedom harm fundamental United States interests, how the advancement of international religious freedom can advance such interests, how United States international religious freedom policy should be carried out in practice by United States diplomats and other Foreign Service officers, and the relevance and relationship of international religious freedom to United States defense, diplomacy, development, and public affairs efforts. The Secretary of State should ensure the availability of sufficient resources to develop and implement such curriculum.
(C)Information sharing
The curriculum and training materials developed under this paragraph shall be shared with the United States Armed Forces and other Federal departments and agencies with personnel who are stationed overseas, as appropriate, to provide training on—
(i)United States religious freedom policies;
(ii)religious traditions;
(iii)religious engagement strategies;
(iv)religious and cultural issues; and
(v)efforts to counter violent religious extremism.
(b)Refugees
The Secretary of State shall provide sessions on refugee law and adjudications and on religious persecution to each individual seeking a commission as a United States consular officer. The Secretary shall also ensure that any member of the Service who is assigned to a position that may be called upon to assess requests for consideration for refugee admissions, including any consular officer, has completed training on refugee law and refugee adjudications in addition to the training required in this section.
(c)Child soldiers
The Secretary of State, with the assistance of other relevant officials, shall establish as part of the standard training provided for chiefs of mission, deputy chiefs of mission, and other officers of the Service who are or will be involved in the assessment of child soldier use or the drafting of the annual Human Rights Report instruction on matters related to child soldiers, and the substance of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008.
(d)Economic and commercial diplomacy
The Secretary of State, with the assistance of other relevant officials and the private sector, shall establish as part of the standard training provided for economic and commercial officers of the Foreign Service, chiefs of mission, and deputy chiefs of mission, training on matters related to economic and commercial diplomacy, with particular attention to market access and other elements of an enabling framework for United States businesses, commercial advocacy, and United States foreign economic policy, in addition to awareness about the support of the United States Government available to United States businesses, including support provided by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Trade and Development Agency, the Department of the Treasury, the United States Agency for International Development, and the United States International Development Finance Corporation.
(e)Training in multilateral diplomacy
(1)In general
The Secretary, in consultation with other senior officials as appropriate, shall establish training courses on—
(A)the conduct of diplomacy at international organizations and other multilateral institutions; and
(B)broad-based multilateral negotiations of international instruments.
(2)Required training
Members of the Service, including appropriate chiefs of mission and other officers who are assigned to United States missions representing the United States to international organizations and other multilateral institutions or who are assigned in other positions that have as their primary responsibility formulation of policy related to such organizations and institutions, or participation in negotiations of international instruments, shall receive specialized training in the areas described in paragraph (1) prior to the beginning of service for such assignment or, if receiving such training at that time is not practical, within the first year of beginning such assignment.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
References in Text
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, referred to in subsec. (a)(1)(C), is div. A of Pub. L. 106–386, Oct. 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 1466, which is classified principally to chapter 78 (§ 7101 et seq.) of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see
Short Title
note set out under section 7101 of this title and Tables. The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, referred to in subsec. (c), is title IV of Pub. L. 110–457, Dec. 23, 2008, 122 Stat. 5087, which is classified principally to sections 2370c to 2370c–2 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see
Short Title
of 2008 Amendment note set out under section 2151 of this title and Tables.
Amendments
2023—Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 118–31 added subsec. (e). 2019—Subsec. (a)(1)(D). Pub. L. 115–441 added subpar. (D). Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 116–94 added subsec. (d). 2016—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 114–281, § 103(a)(1), inserted subsec. heading, designated existing provisions as par. (1) and inserted par. heading, redesignated former pars. (1) to (3) as subpars. (A) to (C), respectively, and added par. (2). Subsecs. (b), (c). Pub. L. 114–281, § 103(a)(2), (3), inserted headings. 2008—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 110–457 added subsec. (c). 2006—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 109–164 inserted “, the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking,” after “section 6411(b) of this title” in introductory provisions and added par. (3). 2002—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 107–132 inserted “George P. Shultz” after “director of the” in introductory provisions. 1998—Pub. L. 105–292, § 602(b), designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date
of 2008 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 110–457 effective 180 days after Dec. 23, 2008, see section 407 of Pub. L. 110–457, set out as an
Effective Date
note under section 2370c of this title. Economic and Commercial Diplomacy Training Pub. L. 119–75, div. F, title VII, § 7028(b), Feb. 3, 2026, 140 Stat. 560, provided that: “In carrying out section 705 of title VII of division J of Public Law 116–94 [amending this section], the Secretary of State shall annually assess training needs across the economic and commercial diplomacy issue areas and ensure, after a review of course offerings, course attendance records, and course evaluation results, that current offerings meet training needs.” Similar provisions were contained in the following prior appropriation act: Pub. L. 118–47, div. F, title VII, § 7025(c), Mar. 23, 2024, 138 Stat. 775. Training for Department Employees Pub. L. 118–31, div. F, title LXVII, § 6702(b), Dec. 22, 2023, 137 Stat. 1015, provided that: “The Secretary of State shall ensure that employees of the Department of State who are assigned to positions described in paragraph (2) of subsection (e) of section 708 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 [22 U.S.C. 4028(e)(2)] (as added by subsection (a) of this section), including members of the civil service or general service, or who are seconded to international organizations for a period of at least one year, receive training described in such subsection and participate in other such courses as the Secretary may recommend to build or augment identifiable skills that would be useful for such Department officials representing United States interests at these institutions and organizations.”
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
22 U.S.C. § 4028
Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110