In The News

Report Reveals London's Sex Slaves

Simon Jeffery August 19, 2004
A recent report provides a snapshot of London's off-street prostitution, claiming that more than 8,000 women are working in brothels, saunas and massage parlors across the city, as well as businesses that put up ads in newspapers and websites. A closer look at the nationalities of these women, however, finds that three quarters of them are non-British, coming mostly from eastern Europe and...

A Question of Identity

Hasan Suroor August 17, 2004
The million-strong Indian community in Britain is expressing concerns over being lumped together with Bangladeshis and Pakistanis by media and government. The generic term “Asian,” they argue, obfuscates the facts when used to describe social problems such as honor killings or the Bradford riots, because most of the perpetrators were non-Indian. Hasan Suroor, the author of this opinion piece in...

Southeastern European Nations Unite to Battle Sex Trafficking

David Binder August 15, 2004
According to the International Organization for Migration, 200,000 women are trafficked through Southeastern Europe each year. In response to this tragic crime rate, the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative in Bucharest has conducted three regional sweeps against human traffic rings. The Initiative, which opened in 2001 with American assistance, recently helped arrest five offenders in a...

Darfur Rebels not Aware of Talks, Welcome Nigeria

August 10, 2004
To address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, the Sudanese government and black African rebel groups have agreed to peace negotiations mediated by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. The meeting, set to take place in Abuja, Nigeria on Aug. 23, will hopefully end the turmoil that has far claimed 50,000 lives since February 2003. Rebel groups set to participate include the...

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Paul Kennedy August 6, 2004
One of the worst blows to the fragile system of international law happened recently, writes Yale professor and international security expert Paul Kennedy, and it made no headlines. On June 2, Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan murdered five members of the Nobel Prize winning organization, Doctors Without Borders. The atrocity prompted the withdrawal of remaining volunteers, ending 24 years of aid...

Tourism Make-Over for Pariah State

Marasri Boonroj August 4, 2004
Thai and Burmese travel officials are working together to promote Burma as a travel destination, despite its being considered a pariah state due to Rangoon’s military government and human rights abuses. Before the Burmese tourist industry can thrive, however, tourism experts say the country will have to develop its infrastructure, eliminate its two-tier exchange rate, and develop a two-part...

To Save Lives in Darfur, Back African Peacekeepers and Demand War Crimes Accountability, Says ICG's Prendergast

August 4, 2004
According to John Prendergast, special aid to the president of The International Crisis Group (ICG), the United States and other world actors such as the European Union, the Arab League, Japan, and China, need to back the deployment of an African Union-led force to protect civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region. Though he acknowledges that genocide is difficult to prove, Prendergast believes that...