Welsh Assembly Member Joyce Watson to address Women’s Development Forum on human trafficking

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HUMAN trafficking will come under the spotlight in Guernsey next week (Monday). Welsh Assembly member for Mid and West Wales, Joyce Watson will discuss the issue at a Women’s Development Forum lunchtime event on Monday. Mrs Watson is being brought over by Investec Specialist Bank, which is sponsoring the monthly lunch. She has a close connection with staff member and States Deputy, Michelle Le Clerc, who met the member of the Welsh Assembly at a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in the Falkland Islands.

'Joyce has done a lot of work on human trafficking as well as gender equality. She's an extremely interesting woman and her talk promises to be full of fascinating facts and discussion points. It's always a great honour to have someone of Joyce's calibre and experience to address the Women's Development Forum members,' said Miss Le Clerc.

Local human trafficking campaigner for the charity GAST, Retha Jenkins, will also be at the lunch. She said it was vital to inform the public of modern slavery, as she said awareness was the first line of defence.

'Before people can take action against human trafficking, they need to know the problem exists. GAST aims to raise awareness locally as to ensure that islanders are more equipped to protect themselves when going to university or travelling abroad.' said Mrs Jenkins.

Mrs Watson has been involved in a number of high profile campaigns.

In 2010 she published Bordering on Concern, a report on Human Trafficking in Wales. As a result of her campaign work Wales now has an anti-Trafficking coordinator. In 2009 she created the Women in Construction network and she continues to work with employers and trade bodies to get more young people and women into the construction industry.

Mrs Watson has also enrolled male sports ambassadors for her White Ribbon campaign work to support the fight against domestic violence, an idea that has since been taken up by the Welsh Rugby Union. She is hoping during her trip to develop links between a school in Tenby and Guernsey to raise further awareness of White Ribbon day in the island.

The WDF lunchtime event takes place at on Monday 24 February. There are a limited number of non-member spaces available, for a ticket contact admin@wdforum.org and/or for more information about WDF go to www.wdforum.org.