Vernon Coaker MP - Home Office Minister for Crime Reduction.

Before taking up his post at the Home Office in 2006, Mr Coaker was a government whip, from June 2003. He was previously Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Tessa Jowell, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, and was also PPS to Estelle Morris when she was Secretary of State for Education. Mr Coaker has been MP for Gedling in Nottinghamshire since 1997.

He is one of UNICEF's 'Special Friends' in Parliament, and has visited Kosovo, Macedonia and Angola to see the work being done there. Before becoming an MP, Vernon Coaker was Deputy Headteacher at Bigwood School in Nottingham.

Gabriela Cretu - Member of the European Parliament Romania.
www.gabrielacretu.ro (In Romanian)
www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/yourMep/view.do;?id=33977

Gabriela Cretu is a Member of the European Parliament for Romania. She is Vice-Chairwoman of the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community, a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and a Substitute for both the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and the Delegation for Relations with Belarus. She has been an active promoter of women’s rights, serving as Executive secretary of the National Bureau of Women's Forums of the PSDR from 1998 to 2001 and as Vice-Chairwoman of the National Women's Organisation of the Partidul Social Democrat (PSD) since 2005. She will be speaking on why the UK Government must ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings.

Mary Honeyball - Member of the European Parliament London. (Chair)
www.maryhoneyball.net

Mary has been a Member of the European Parliament for London since 2000. She is Labour Spokesperson in the European Parliament Women’s Rights Committee, Labour Spokesperson on the Culture and Education Committee, and sits on the Industry, Research and Energy Committee. Mary has always had a strong commitment to women’s rights. Before becoming an MEP she spent some time as Chief Executive of the lone parent charity Gingerbread and as Treasurer of Emily's List, which provides support to Labour women wishing to enter Parliament. She is the Chair of the Women and Children on Demand Symposium and will be speaking on the need for Pan-European Action in order to tackle human trafficking.

Anni Marjoram – Mayor’s Advisor for Women Greater London Assembly.

Anni Marjoram is currently the Policy Adviser on women’s issues to the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. She has campaigned for nearly 20 years for more representation of women in political and public life. She has recently worked for a member of the European Parliament and has also run an MP’s office in the House of Commons. She was a Keynote Speaker at the Equality Exchange Annual Conference in 2006 and a Speaker at the 2007 State of London Debate.

Val Shawcross – Greater London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark.
www.valshawcross.com

Val Shawcross has been a member of the Greater London Assembly for the Lambeth and Southwark constituencies since 2000. She has worked for the Inner London Education Authority, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and as Head of Public Affairs for the National Federation of Women's Institutes. She has also served as the Labour Party's National Women's Officer and was appointed by the Mayor to be Chair of the London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority, which runs the London Fire Brigade, in 2000. She has been a South London resident and advocate for over 20 years.

Esohe Aghatise – Associazione Irokmo Onlus – Italy.

Esohe Aghatise is a lawyer and activist who has worked to help the victims of sex trafficking in Turin, Italy and in her native country, Nigeria, for over 10 years. She is the founder of Association Oroko, a nongovernmental organization since 1998 that assists women who have fallen victim to sex trafficking in Turin. Esohe argues that it is impossible to fight trafficking where prostitution is legally sanctioned and so calls for “global recognition that prostitution is a violation of women’s human rights and is inherently a violation of women’s dignity as persons.” She has been honored as one of the US State Department’s “Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery” and will be speaking on victim support at the Symposium.

Gunilla S. Ekberg - Co-Executive Director Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International.

Gunilla S. Ekberg is a Canadian-Swedish lawyer and international expert on human rights, gender equality and violence against women. In 2007, she was appointed Co-Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International, an international non-governmental organization established in 1988 that promotes women's human rights by working internationally to combat sexual exploitation in all its forms.

She has also worked as a Swedish government advisor, social worker and in a women's health clinic, with refugee women and girls, and with women in prison in several countries. Ms Ekberg has developed and coordinated a multitude of projects and programs on prostitution and trafficking in humans and male violence against women and girls. Ms. Ekberg has published on the subjects and has developed and conducted workshops and programs for key actors on government, and grassroots levels, as well as with the public nationally and internationally.

Fiona MacTaggart MP
www.fionamactaggart.labour.co.uk/ViewPage.cfm?Page=6347

Fiona MacTaggart was elected Labour MP for Slough in May 1997 and is a member of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee. She was a Minister at the Home Office between June 2003 and May 2006. Her responsibilities included the criminal justice system including race, victims and witnesses, criminal injuries compensation, and prostitution.

Julie Bindel
Julie Bindel has been active in the campaign to end violence against women since 1979, as an activist, researcher and writer. In 1998, along with Professor Jalna Hanmer, she was instrumental in implimenting and coordinating the very first feminist initiative in the UK to tackle men's use of women in prostitution. The Kerb Crawler's Re-education Programme ran for a 12 month period in West Yorkshire, offering men an opportunity to become educated about the realities of prostitution and the related harm.

Since then, Julie has worked on numerous projects relating to local and international sex industries, such as research into the connections between lap dancing and prostitution; a comparative study of legal and policy regimes dealing with prostitution in 4 countries; and research mapping on and off street sex industries in various cities and local boroughs in the UK. She has written a variety of book chapters and papers on aspects of violence against women, and is co-editor of 'The Map of My Life', the Story of Emma Humpreys, Astraia Press, 2003.

Julie is a founder member of the national feminist law reform campaign, Justice for Women, and a trustee of the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize. Julie currently works part-time as a consultant for the London-based POPPY Project, and, as a freelance journalist writing mainly for the Guardian newspaper.

Joanne McCartney - Greater London Assembly Member for Enfield & Haringey
www.london.gov.uk/assembly/members/mccartneyj.jsp

Chair of the Health and Public Services Committee and Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Formerly a Councillor on Enfield council 1998-2006 and Director of Millfield House and Theatre. Prior to her election to the London Assembly Joanne was a barrister specialising in employment law.