The issue at hand.

While the subject of last issue's cover story, the possibility of war with Iraq, continues to be a focus of media attention and public discussion, major ongoing peacetime concerns shouldn't be allowed to fall by the wayside. Among these are human rights violations that go on throughout the world. They include slavery, the subjugation of women and children, the suppression of sexual freedom, and religious discrimination. Humanism has always been strong in opposition to these and other assaults on liberty.

Of special interest in this regard is how each one of these violations comes into play in the matter of sexual prostitution. A significant percentage of all prostitutes around the world are sexual slaves--in clear physical bondage. And the overwhelming majority of ostensibly free prostitutes are nonetheless exploited or unwillingly and unhappily pressed into the work by unacceptable economic conditions. Unenlightened social attitudes toward sex are among the forces that play a role in this, as do regressive views about women and gays. Added to this, traditional religious and cultural values, instead of liberating prostitutes--as is suggested by some passages in various scriptures--more often contribute to the dispossessed status prostitutes experience.

Prostitution can thus be seen as a textbook social issue for the application of humanist thought. But that doesn't mean all humanists are in complete agreement on the best socio-political conclusion to reach. In these pages, Kimberly Klinger argues for the decriminalization, and perhaps the legalization, of prostitution. She offers this, along with full support for the rights and dignity of sex workers, as a significant way to prevent sexual exploitation and slavery. Alice Leuchtag, on the other hand, sees legalized prostitution not only as contributing to the spread of these ills but as actually protecting sex traffickers and pimps from prosecution. Prostitution has been explored in the pages of the Humanist since at least the 1970s, but developments worldwide bring a new urgency to the subject.

Also in this issue of the Humanist we conclude our series on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. David Schafer reveals how the Six-Day War of 1967 established the specifics of today's struggle. Then Erika Waak exposes the little-known story of how Palestinians today suffer at the hands of their own police and judicial system.

We need to remember, of course, that Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, don't provide the whole Middle Eastern picture. Even when speaking only of Muslims, we can't reasonably claim that most are fundamentalist. Nor can we say that all fundamentalist Muslims are irrational. The Shiite Muslim government of Iran, for example, has made surprising strides in managing the size of its population. And these strides, Janet Larsen shows, have involved radical improvements in the education of women--improvements actually made possible by the dominant role religion plays in that culture.

On the other hand, America's home-grown religion, Mormonism, is currently exercising as much influence as it can on the United Nations in an effort to reverse the effects of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In the name of God and religious doctrine it seeks to prevent further gains by women and roll back some already secured. Richard A Garrard brings us the story direct from Salt Lake City, Utah.

The world remains a complex place, even for humanists. As a result, bringing the humanist lifestance to bear on the central controversies of our time isn't always as easy, simple, and direct as humanists might wish it could be. But humanists remain honest enough to admit that and flexible enough to deal with it.