The Foreign Affairs Symposium commenced its 2007 "Shifts in the Global Tides" series Wednesday night with a panel event that examined human trafficking across the globe.
"This series is sort of unique. Topics on human rights are emerging quickly, but they haven't really been brought up," FAS co-chair Charlie Sido said.
The symposium's executive directors described in their introduction that this year's theme will be focusing on some of most significant changes taking place globally over eight events to take place over the next two months.
"We've taken a less typical approach, steering away from typical topics such as Iraq and looking instead at less-addressed topics on campus, co-chair Leona Say said. "By diversifying our theme this year, we hope to appeal to a larger portion of the student body."
The FAS challenged Wednesday night's panel to "analyze the problem of human trafficking, what it means to those involved, what is being done now to stop it, and whether such measures are effective."
Panelists Karen Stauss and Nazek Al-Wakeel represented the "activist" and "academic" camps combating human trade around the world. Stauss works for the Polaris Project, a non-governmental organization with headquarters in Washington, DC and in Tokyo committed to resolving human trafficking worldwide. On the other hand, Al-Wakeel speaks for the Protection Project based at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
"Human trafficking now ranks second or third as a global crime behind drug and arms trafficking," Stauss said. Human trade, she further explained, ranges to cover labor workers as well as individuals involved in the sex trade both domestically and internationally.
A growing trend, the panelists observe, is one of human trade workers being brought into the United States from abroad.
Both panelists discussed that a significant part of their job involves raising awareness on the subject on many different fronts. Their respective institutions are also undertaking further federal and state legislative efforts to combat this fast-growing human rights issue.
"Human trafficking is really a modern form of slavery," Stauss said.
The FAS will next feature Jeffrey Sachs, the former Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan among the other world-class speakers for the remainder of the series.
"We certainly hope that our lineup will be interesting and appealing this year," Say said.
The symposium began later than usual this year, since the FAS board chose to devote the first half of the semester to planning for a more successful series.
"We do all of our own fundraising and publicity, the challenge is the time it takes, said Sido. "But we've got a staff dedicated to all this."
In the past, the FAS-sponsored series has been well-received in the community. Both Hopkins affiliates and the city have exprecssed appreciation for the awareness they inspire of world-wide issues.
"We've received tremendous feedback; we've actually won the Homewood award, where students nominate the best student group on campus. We've even heard from the Baltimore community, applauding us for the stimulating speakers we bring in," Say recalls.
