Stephen Barden talks to Ruchira Gupta, lifelong activist against human trafficking - especially the trafficking of women. This extraordinary woman not only founded a global organization to protect and educate sexually trafficked women and their daughters but, through her work with the United Nations, has driven changes in global laws on human trafficking and drawn up rules of behaviour for the peacekeepers themselves.

In this episode we hear how she started on her campaign decades ago when she was covering a story in Nepal and discovered there were no girls in village after village. Her question "Where are all the girls", set her on a path that she's following to this day.

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From the frontlines of one of the world's most enduring humanitarian crises comes a story of extraordinary dedication. Dr Lex Takkenberg takes us through his extraordinary four-decade journey working with refugees and displaced persons, including thirty years with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

What begins as an academic interest in international law at the University of Amsterdam transforms into a lifelong commitment when Lex joins UNRWA during the first Intifada. Through his eyes, we witness the evolution of conflict in the region - from the relatively contained stone-throwing confrontations of the late 1980s to the increasingly lethal violence that followed the second Intifada and beyond.

Lex offers rare insights into UNRWA's precarious position between competing stakeholders. Initially established to provide relief while deflecting attention from refugees' right of return, the agency evolved into an essential provider of education, healthcare, and social services while constantly navigating accusations of bias from all sides. His account of developing "robust neutrality frameworks" reveals the extraordinary scrutiny UNRWA faces compared to other UN agencies.

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