International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons
Category: Women's
Year of Foundation: 1899 (as International Association for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade)
Location of Foundation: London, UK
Year of Dissolution: ?1971
Founding Rationales:
On the first day of the International Congress on the White Slave Traffic in London in June 1899, it was agreed 'that the Congress approves the principle of forming a permanent international organization for perfecting and bringing into effect the work of the Congress.' Its goals included establishing national committees to combat the 'white slave trade' and to lobby governments for an intergovernmental agreement to punish white slave traffickers, and to promote 'a close and permanent agreement ... among the philanthropic and charitable societies of different countries to communicate to each other information as to the emigration of women under suspicious circumstances, and to undertake to protect the emigrants on their arrival' and to circulate to governments and relevant associations a list of all organizations 'competent and willing to fulfill this duty.'
Source: 'Minutes of the International Congress on the White Slave Traffic held at Westminster Palace Hotel on June 21st, 22nd and 23rd 1899', 4IBS/1/1, Box FL192, Archives of the International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons, Women's Library, London.
Evolution of Membership (countries with members):
Sources: AVI; YIO; D. Gorman, 'Empire, Internationalism, and the Campaign against the Traffic in Women and Children in the 1920s' (Twentieth Century British History, 2007, p. 13)