The second Gender Studies Forum, sponsored by the United Kingdom Office for the Advancement of Women and the Association of Bahá’í Studies, took a hard look at one of the emerging problems of the 21st century — the increasing traffic in women into the UK.

Trafficking in human beings is among the most profitable illegal trade in the UK, accounting for more income for the perpetrators than drugs, arms or money laundering.

The Forum was held in October at Cambridge University, attended by members of UNIFEM, Soroptimist International and the National Council of Women, as well as organisations working with asylum seekers and the police.

The speakers included Detective Sergeant Ed Bird of the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit and Hugo Charlton, a barrister specialising in criminal and administrative law. The nature of the problem was outlined, the causes examined and the devastating effect on human life emphasised.

The Bahá’í principle of the equality of women and men, and the urgent need for robust action against those who traffic in women, underpinned the discussions that followed.

Among the recommendations to be passed to government for consideration were to include moral issues in the national curriculum as part of the citizenship programme; and to resource more effectively those agencies that deal with trafficking and its effects, including the police and those working with victims.

The conference report will also be published and disseminated at the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. WM

A wide range of issuess was presented at the Gender Studies Forum