Last Girl First

Chair of CAP international, CEO of Ruhama

Sarah Benson is the Chief Executive Officer with Ruhama, an Irish NGO working nationally with women affected by prostitution including victims of sex trafficking.

Prior to her present role Sarah was for eight years the manager of the National Domestic Violence Helpline in Ireland. In addition, she has extensive experience of work in the community and voluntary sector both in Ireland and abroad, working particularly with marginalized ethnic minority women and youth.

She is also a Director of the Board of the National Women’s Council of Ireland.

Sarah has been the Irish Expert on Violence Against Women for the European Women’s Lobby Observatory for six years (2010 – sept 2016) & is currently the Chairperson of CAP International.

Pre-session lecture & Plenary opening words

Founder and president of Apne Aap, Vice President of CAP international, journalist

Ruchira Gupta is an Indian sex trafficking abolitionist, journalist and activist. She has worked for over 25 years to end sex trafficking and has been honored for her work by nations, governmental leaders, and organizations on a global scale. In 2002, she established Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a nongovernmental organization known as Apne Aap, which addresses women's rights and the eradication of human sex trafficking. Apne Aap has organized over 15,000 women and girls trapped in or at risk of prostitution in India. As of 2013, she continues to serve as the organization's president.

She works to expose the connection between trafficking and prostitution as well as to demand a societal shift which acknowledges that male demand for prostitution is what continues, furthers and perpetuates trafficking.

Pre-session lecture & Plenary opening words

Feminist activist, UN Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador

Ashley Judd is a feminist social justice humanitarian. She has been working internationally, with NGO’S, grass roots organizations, governments, and supranational bodies since 2004. Presently, she serves as Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNFPA, is the Global Ambassador for Population Services International, and also for Polaris Project.

She serves on the Advisory Boards of International Center for Research on Women, Apne Aap Worldwide, and Demand Abolition. She is Chairperson of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project: Curbing Abuse, Expanding Freedom.

Pre-session lecture

Survivor of sexual exploitation, activist

Rosen Hicher is a French abolitionist activist and survivor of prostitution. She marched 800km across France in 2014 to protest the Senate's delay in penalising johns, and is the author of » Rosen... : Une prostituée témoigne«.

Ms Hicher was prostituted for 22 years and got into prostitution initially due to having no job and living in impoverishment. She advocates for the criminalization of punters and speaks publicly about the dangers of prostitution for women and girls in society.

Pre-session lecture

Young survivor of prostitution & community worker

Shanie Roy is a survivor and activist against the sex industry in Canada. She was in the sex industry from age 15 to 19. Ms Roy is a community worker, works with la Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle (la CLES) and is co-founder of Collectif d’aide aux femmes exploitées sexuellement.

Pre-session lecture & workshop on youth

Survivor leader with Apne Aap, indigenous community leader

Fatima Khatoon is Apne Aap Women Worldwide survivor leader based in Bihar. Ms Khatoon was born into a Nat community, a denotified tribe and was married off at the age of nine, to a 40-year-old man, who was running a brothel with his mother (a pimp). She tried to run away four times, but was forced to return by her parents. She is with Apne Aap since 2004, and has fought the odds in her life, educated her children, became a community leader enrolling the daughters of prostituted women in school, filed cases against traffickers, petitioned and gheraoed government authorities to get government IDS for herself and her friends and turned her brothel into a non-brothel and a real home for herself and her family. Fatima has helped in rescuing 35 girls, who were trafficked into prostitution.

Pre-session lecture & plenary Last Girl First

Indian Minister for Women & Child Development

(TBC)

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi is the Indian Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development in the Government of PM Narendra Modi. Her ministry's vision is one of empowered women living with dignity and contributing as equal partners in development in an environment free from violence and discrimination. She is the winner of the International Women’s Association Woman of the Year Award, Chennai, 2001.

Plenary opening words

Ambassador of Sweden to India

Plenary opening words

Executive Director of CAP International

Grégoire Théry is the Executive Director of CAP international, a coalition of 14 frontline NGOs providing direct assistance to victims of prostitution and advocating for the universal abolition of prostitution. Prior to this, Mr Théry worked with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for 6 years, as the Permanent Representative to the European Union.

Plenary opening words moderator

Founder of Bodo Women's Justice Forum (India)

Anjali Daimari is a human rights activist, author and founder of Bodo Women's Justice Forum. In 1992, Ms Daimari formed the Bodo Women Justice Forum to bring about awareness of the community’s rights. In 1996 and 1997, she represented the Bodo tribe at the UN Working Group on Indigenous Population (UNWGIP) in Geneva for the first time. The Bodos are the largest indigenous community in Assam state.

Plenary Last Girl First

Co-founder of Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry, prostitution survivor, social worker

Jackie Lynne, Metis prostitution survivor, is an activist, writer, and cofounder of Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry (IWASI). IWASI is a group of Indigenous feminists committed to the abolition of prostitution and pornography which views both as forms of male sexual violence, rooted in colonization, that disproportionately harms and kills Indigenous women and girls.

Plenary Last Girl First

Survivor of sexual exploitation and author

Grizelda Grootboom is the author of Exit!: a true story, and works with Embrace Dignity, a South African NGO that sets out to challenge gendered power inequalities that continue to oppress women and girls through prostitution, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Ms Grootboom's memoir tells the story of how she was trafficked into prostitution at age 18 and remained in situation of prostitution for ten years.

Plenary Last Girl First

Founder of SPACE International and survivor of sexual exploitation

Rachel Moran was prostituted for seven years in Dublin and other Irish cities, beginning when she was fifteen-years-old. She managed to extricate herself from prostitution in 1998, at the age of 22. In the millennium year she returned to education and completed a degree in Journalism from Dublin City University. She has been involved in the political push for the Nordic Model in Ireland since she first addressed the crowd gathered at the launch of the Turn Off The Red Light campaign in February, 2011. She has spoken at numerous international locations, including the United Nations Plaza in New York and Boston’s Harvard University. She works in conjunction with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and the European Women’s Lobby. Her memoir ‘Paid For’ has was published last year.

Plenary Last Girl First

Co-convenor of National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights

Professor Vimal Thorat is the current co-convener at the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights and former professor of Hindi at Indira Gandhi National Open University. She is also the chairperson of the All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM), a movement which was initiated by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. Professor Thorat is on the editorial board of a Hindi magazine on Dalit literature produced by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies in Delhi, Dalit Asmita.

Plenary Last Girl First

Founder, Survivor Speak

For more than 16 years, Dee Clarke has been organizing, educating and empowering adults and youth to speak out for public policy that affects their lives. She has organized groups to march, demonstrate, collaborate, dialogue, create, to have and give voice, and to be at the table of decision-makers. Dee is known for her diplomacy and grace, from meeting with governors and legislators to interacting directly with sex-trafficked and exploited women.

Plenary Last Girl First

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Panel on Last Girl First

Founder of Maiti Nepal, CNN Hero of the Year 2010

Anuradha Koirala is a Nepalese social activist and the founder and director of Maiti Nepal, a non-profit organization in Nepal dedicated to helping victims of sex trafficking. Maiti Nepal operates a rehabilitation home in Kathmandu, as well as transit homes at the Indo-Nepal border towns, preventative homes in the countryside, and an academy in Kathmandu.

Ms Koirala received the CNN Hero of the Year award in 2010, the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in 2006 and the Mother Teresa Award in 2014. Ms. Koirala was also appointed as a former Assistant State Minister of Women Children and Social Welfare as an honor to her contributions.

SAARC panel, keynote speaker

Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association

Advocate Salma Ali, a dedicated human rights defender and women’s rights activist, is the Executive Director of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers’ Association.

In 1995, Ms Ali received an Ashoka Fellowship for obtaining the release of Bangladeshi women who were being imprisoned without having a proper trial or due cause and guiding them through the different transitions to the outside world.

In 2010, she received the “Woman of Courage” award from the United State’s Secretary of State for her tireless work on behalf of women and children in Bangladesh over the last three decades.

Ms Ali has initiated advocacy at the national level for enacting women- and child-friendly legislation and has delivered technical assistance to the Government of Bangladesh in drafting and amending various laws and policies. In recent years, she has been influential in the development of the Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act, 2010 and the Rules of Procedure for the implementation of that Act and the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act, 2012.

Plenary SAARC regional dynamics

Journalist

Namrata Sharma started her career as a journalist, writing on women’s issues, politics and development. She then moved into the development sector, working for the UN World Food Programme and other international organisations. Seeing that women were disproportionately impacted by poverty, Ms Sharma focused on designing women’s rights and advocacy programmes. She is the CEO of the Women’s Rehabilitation Center (WOREC Nepal).

​Plenary SAARC regional dynamics

Director of Maiti Nepal

Bishwo Ram Khadka is Director of Maiti Nepal, and has been working with Maiti Nepal for 19 years. Maiti Nepal is a non-profit organization in Nepal dedicated to helping victims of sex trafficking. It operates a rehabilitation home in Kathmandu, as well as transit homes at the Indo-Nepal border towns, preventative homes in the countryside, and an academy in Kathmandu.

Plenary SAARC regional dynamics

Executive Director, RENEW

Tandin Wangmo is the Executive Director of RENEW Bhutan (Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women), which aims to be the leading organization in shaping the future role of women in Bhutanese Society, helping to reduce vulnerabilities while nurturing and empowering them.

Prior to joining RENEW, in 2015, Ms. Wangmo consulted with Bhutan’s Institute of Management Studies on numerous social issues – including those related to gender, youth, program design and leadership training. In the political sector, Ms. Wangmo served as the Spokesperson and Director of Media & Knowledge Center for the People’s Democratic Party of Bhutan.

Plenary SAARC regional dynamics

Representative, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for South Asia

Panel SAARC regional dynamics

Human rights lawyer and activist

Nandita Haksar is a human rights lawyer, teacher, campaigner and writer. Her engagement with the people of Northeast India began while studying in Jawaharlal Nehru University in the 1970s. She has represented the victims of army atrocities in the Supreme Court and the High Court and campaigned nationally and internationally against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958. In her capacity as a human rights lawyer, Ms Haksar has helped to organize migrant workers to fight for their rights and voice their grievances. She has written innumerable articles in national dailies and journals and is the author of several books.

Plenary SAARC regional dynamics

Rescue Foundation

Panel on SAARC

Shakti Vahini

Panel on SAARC

Coordinator, Al-Sehar Foundation, Lahore & Executive Director, Center for Research & Dialogue, Islamabad

Since 1997, Al-Sehar Foundation is continuously striving for the development rights of isolated and marginalized communities of old Lahore. The fundamental objective of Al-Sehar foundation is to work for the integrated socio-economic development of marginalized communities of Old Lahore. Al-Sehar Foundation is working in the following interconnected development sectors.

Panel on SAARC

IPS, Human trafficking expert

Dr PM Nair is a professor, researcher and advisor on human trafficking. He has the rare experience of having integrated research into policing. As the Nodal Officer of the National Human Rights Commission and as the Principal Researcher-cum-Investigator in the Action Research on Trafficking in Women and Children, which was carried out during 2002-2003, he has understood the dimensions of trafficking in all its entirety. During 29 years of policing, including a decade in CBI, he has handled innumerable crimes of trafficking.

Plenary SAARC regional dynamics and Workshop on new technologies

She is a Consultant at Impulse NGO Network. Her job includes coordinating the works of scaling and replication of Impulse Model in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal for creating linkages of communication and better efficiency amongst stakeholders to respond to human trafficking cases especially Cross Border cases. She also contributes as a feature writer for Special Weekly Women Column in The Sentinal-Assam.

Panel on SAARC

MP, Chair of women's rights delegation

Catherine Coutelle is a member of the National Assembly of France and a member of the Socialist Party, and chair of the women’s rights delegation, as well as a member of the High Council for Equality between Women and Men in France.

Plenary legislative frameworks

MP, head of All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade

Gavin Shuker is an English Labour Co-operative politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South since 2010. Shuker is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade. In March 2014 under Shuker’s chairmanship, the APPG on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade published a new report on the legal state of prostitution in England and Wales. The result of a year-long consultation it was the first major cross-party report on the issue since the mid-1990s. The report called for a wholesale review of the existing legal settlement on prostitution, advocating consideration of a move towards the Nordic Model.

Plenary legislative frameworks

Member of European Parliament, rapporteur of "Sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality"

Mary Honeyball entered the European Parliament in 2000, following three decades of involvement in Labour politics. Since becoming an MEP she has taken a special interest in women’s issues, and acts as the Labour spokesperson for women’s rights and gender equality. She is a member of the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and was the rapporteur of "Sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality" in 2014.

Plenary legislative frameworks

Ambassador at Large Trafficking in Human Beings

Per-Anders Sunesson was appointed Sweden's first ever ambassador to combat trafficking in human beings in May 2016. Mr Sunesson has a legal background and in recent years has held various positions at the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, including head of social services, disability issues and child rights. Mr Sunesson has also previously worked at the Ministry of Justice, where his area was the standing of victims in criminal proceedings, and at the National Board of Health and Welfare, where he was responsible for supervision of health and medical care, and social services.

Plenary legislative frameworks

MP, former vice-chairperson of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

Nafisa Shah is a Pakistani politician who serves as a Member of National Assembly of Pakistan since 2008 and the vice-president of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Ms Shah also served as the Mayor of Khairpur District. She was recognised as a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum in 20015 and was listed as one of 100 Women Who Shake Pakistan by Newsweek Pakistan in 2011.

Plenary legislative frameworks

Senator, president of Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress

Dola Sen is an Indian politician and trade unionist. As of 2014 she was the West Bengal state president of the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC). She has also been selected as the Vice-Chairperson of Bengal Women’s Commission.

Plenary legislative frameworks, workshop on trade unions

Senator, Board member of All India Democratic Women's Association

P.K. Sreemathy Teacher is an Indian politician and a member of the Communist Party of India. She is currently All India Democratic Women’s Association State secretary.

Plenary legislative frameworks

Former MP, chair of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA)

Malini Battacharya is an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India. She was formerly a Member of Parliament and is currently the chair of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India.

Plenary legislative frameworks

General Secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC)

Plenary legislative frameworks

Chief of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW)

Plenary legislative frameworks

Representative of CAES

Alejandra Scelles is a young activist advocating against commercial sexual exploitation as a representative of Fondation Scelles in France and a representative of CAES, a youth movement against sexual exploitation in Spain. She is currently studying her Bachelors degree in Madrid, Spain.

Workshop on youth

Spokesperson for Osez le féminisme

Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu is a young abolitionist activist and the spokesperson for Osez le Féminisme! since 2016. Osez le Féminisme! is a generalist feminist association that seeks to increase the level of equality in society.

Workshop on youth

Youth representative for Freethem

Meghan Donevan is a support worker and project leader Talita, a non-profit organization offering help and support to women who have been exploited in prostitution, pornography or human trafficking for sexual purposes in Sweden and Mongolia. Ms Donevan is a researcher of issues of sexual exploitation, including prostitution, human trafficking and pornography.

Workshop on youth

Media Associate, Apne Aap

Taw Nana is a social activist. She is responsible for activities related to media and advocacy with Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an organization working towards ending sex trafficking by engaging with the victims, survivors and at risk of being prostituted girls and women. She has led many national and international campaigns including organising a candle light march in Sonagachi Redlight area, a first of its kind seeking justice for a murdered prostituted woman. Recently, she has ideated a campaign ‘I Am Giving This Winter’, a donation drive for the Rohingya refugee community in Faridabad, Delhi NCR. Before venturing into development sector, she started out her career as a journalist in The Asian Age, a national daily in New Delhi.

Workshop on youth

Programme Associate, Apne Aap

Khushboo Mishra leads Apne Aap's field intervention, working towards empowering girls and women at risk of prostitution and trafficking. She has helped mainstream the children from marginalized communities by enrolling them to schools, organizing activities including self-defense training, in an effort to make every life count .She has done her Bachelors in Economics from Delhi University.

Workshop on youth

Lebanese American University

I'm a senior Social Work student minoring in Psychology. I have focused throughout my field placements and non academic internships on gender issues.

My first field placement was with KAFA in which I worked on the issue of prostitution and human trafficking, more specifically; I created a proposal on how to design services and reach out for women in prostitution. I did a summer internship where I worked with economically disadvantaged Lebanese and Syrian refugee women on livelihood. And my last field placement was in a women's jail; and there I worked with migrant domestic workers (survivors of human trafficking and exploitation) who have been imprisoned for committing certain felonies. I offered individual counselling and formed a support group for these women.

I have as well been a volunteer with the Red Cross/ Youth department for the past five years in which I also helped lead awareness sessions about gender issues for youth.

Workshop on youth

All India Students' Association

Joined the All India Students' Association in her 1st year of graduation (2013). Was part of Bekhauf Azaadi which started after the 16th Dec gang rape. When the entire country was questioning the woman's morality, AISA was creating a discourse around freedom without fear, freedom to go anywhere anytime, to marry, to not marry. Whether the woman was drunk,where she was, what clothes she was wearing, this question is irrelevant.

Also active in campaigns and organised events around women issues under Pinjratod (women's collective).

Workshop on youth

Youth activist

Devika is a young social activist who has been working on issues of Gender and politics for as long as she can remember. She is co-head of The Gender Studies Cell in St. Stephens College. She believes that the small struggles and acts of rebellion by people, communities and collectives built the larger framework of a resistance against structures and institutions of oppression.

Panel on youth

Child protection expert

Joyatri Ray is a social development professional with over 22 years of work on child protection, focusing primarily on child trafficking, child sexual exploitation and online child abuse in India and across South Asia. She has been associated with various government, non-government organisations to promote child protection. Her work on Child protection issues in the context travel and tourism has been acknowledged by various government bodies. She has also served in UNWOMEN (formerly known as UNIFEM), with particular focus on human trafficking in travel and tourism. She has served as Director – Corporate Social Responsibility for ING entities in India. Presently, she freelances with varied organisations and corporates to develop child protection mechanisms as part of their policy and practice. She also mentors small and medium sized organisations on advocacy ctions, strategy formulations and result oriented implementation plans to strengthen their fight against human trafficking. She also works with un-organised sector to raise awareness on gender relations and child protection issues and how they can ensure that their operations are not used to exploit women and children.

Panel on youth

Indian National Congress, former director of Nehru Yuva Kendra

Panel on youth

Policy and Campaigns Director, European Women's Lobby

Pierrette Pape is Policy and Campaigns Director at the European Women’s Lobby (EWL). She has been at the EWL since 2009, and most specifically in charge of monitoring and influencing the EU policies on violence against women and sexual and reproductive health and rights. She coordinates the EWL campaign ‘Together for a Europe free from prostitution’ and the network of abolitionist NGOs ‘The Brussels’ Call’.

She is also an activist in various women’s organisations in Belgium, such as a grassroot NGO working to assist and support persons in prostitution, a feminist NGO working on gender and development, and she is a member of the editorial Board of the Belgian publication ‘Chronique féministe’.

Workshop on youth moderator

Communications and Campaigns Officer, CAP International

Zala Žbogar is a young feminist professional who joined the Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution in April 2016 as Communications and Campaigns Officer. Previously she worked on communications with the oldest women’s peace organization, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Workshop on youth moderator

Legal advisor, Mouvement du Nid

Lorraine Questiaux is a lawyer and Legal Affairs Advisor at Mouvement du Nid, a French frontline NGO fighting the causes and consequences of prostitution.

Workshop on new technologies

Vice president, CAP International

Claire Quidet is vice-president of CAP International and spokesperson for Mouvement du Nid, a French frontline NGO fighting the causes and consequences of prostitution. She has been responsible for communicating several of Mouvement du Nid’s successful campaigns including the Clio Award-Winning shock campaign Girls of Paradise, a fake escort site which forced sex buyers to be confronted with the realities of prostitution.

Workshop on new technologies

Founder, SheThePeople.TV

Shaili Chopra is the Founder of SheThePeople.TV and an award winning journalist. She is among India's 50 most influential women in media and is a most credible voice on women's headline issues. Her efforts with SheThePeople.TV have been instrumental in widening the dialogue on women in India

Website: http://shethepeople.tv 

Panel on new technologies

Development Advisor for CAP International

Workshop on new technologies

Member of the women's committee of Confédération générale du travail (CGT)

Sabine Reynosa is an abolitionist activist and a member of the women's committee of Confédération générale du travail (CGT), which is the first of the five major trade union confederations in France.

Panel on trade unions

All India Trade Union Congress (ITUC)

Amarjeet Kaur is the Secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the oldest trade union federation in India and one of the five largest. She was also the convenor of the child labour action programme which the AITUC implemented with ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) support.

Panel on trade unions

Union General de Trabajadores (UGT), responsable for migration and expert on trafficking in human beings

Panel on trade unions

All India Railway Men's Association

Panel on trade unions

National Hawkers Association

Panel on trade unions

All India Hawker Women's Federation

Panel on trade unions

Hind Mazdoor Sabha

Panel on trade unions

Representative from Safai Karmachari Andolan, SKA

Panel on trade unions