With our partner the National University of Singapore, the symposium is targeted at students and interested members of the public who want to focus on solutions and preventative actions to target modern slavery. Knowledge experts, activists and professionals working in the Human Trafficking scene will be present to lend their experience and expertise to the event.

Speakers

E. Benjamin Skinner is a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism of Brandeis University. He is the first person in recorded history to observe the negotiations for sale of human beings on four continents, and was named one of National Geographic’s “Adventurers of the Year 2008.” His first book, A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press; 2008), was awarded the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, a citation from the Overseas Press Club in its book category for 2008, and a finalist for The Ryszard Kapuscinski International Award for literary reportage in 2011. Also in 2011, the World Economic Forum recognized Skinner as a Young Global Leader. Previously he held a fellowship at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy of Harvard Kennedy School of Government, served as Special Assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and worked as Research Associate for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His articles have appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, Time, Newsweek International, Travel + Leisure, Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, Foreign Policy and others. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

Bridget Tan is the Founder and President of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), a non-profit organization based in Singapore. For over a decade, she has been at the forefront of migrant labor rights. Since its inception in 2004, HOME has provided direct assistance to more than 50,000 migrants and victims of human trafficking and forced labor. A large number of those in need are women, specifically domestic workers from Asian countries who are in Singapore for work.

Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda is the Founding President and Executive Director of the Visayan Forum Foundation, a Philippine-based NGO known for its innovative work for empowerment of vulnerable migrant especially victims of human trafficking, domestic servitude and other forms of exploitation. Cecil received the 2005 Anti-Slavery Award given by the Anti-Slavery International. In 2008, Cecil was conferred with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in the UK by the Skoll Foundation. She was also named by the US Department of State as one of its Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery in its 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report and was presented the first Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor by the US Department of Labor. She was chosen by children across the globe to receive the prestigious World's Children's Honorary Award during the 2011 World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child. Last June 2011, she received the Prix Caritas Award by Caritas Switzerland for her commitment in creating sustainable and innovative ways in advocating children's rights in the Philippines. Cecil, a globally recognized human rights advocate and multi-awarded freedom fighter, serves as an international expert on human trafficking, child labor and domestic work.

After a decade in corporate America, LanVy Nguyen left to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. While in Vietnam on a quality-assessment project, an incident with a factory worker compelled LanVy to learn more about working conditions and the circumstances that lead workers to bond their lives and future. Having witnessed first hand the abuses, LanVy started a project to assist a dozen exploited laborers. She subsequently set up Fashion4Freedom, a social enterprise that combined the business of fashion with social justice, providing economic freedom, rural development, and assistance to those exploited in Vietnam.

Daniel Seehusen is one of the founders of Ride2Rescue, which seeks to raise awareness and funds for child trafficking through a 26,000 km bike ride from London to Melbourne. His journey began in April 2011.

Moderator

Professor Tommy Koh is an international lawyer, professor and Ambassador-At-Large for the Government of Singapore. He presently serves as Special Adviser at the Singapore Institute of Policy Studies, Chairman of the National Heritage Board and Chairman of the Centre for International Law (CIL) and Rector of Tembusu College, at the University of Singapore. Professor Koh has previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Singapore, and was Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and Ambassador to the United States of America. He was President of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for and the Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development. He is the co-chairman of the China-Singapore Forum, the Japan-Singapore Symposium and the India-Singapore Strategic Dialogue. Professor Koh also serves as the Patron for our exhibition.