UN: United Nations Day for the Abolition of Slavery
UNITED NATIONS, a speech delivered by Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa at New York University, November 30, 2006:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The slave trade was not abolished in the nineteenth century by the British Parliament or by the 13 th amendment to the US Constitution. Slavery is not part of history. It is with us and thrives in our backyard.
Slavery is a booming international trade, less obvious than two hundred years ago for sure, but all around us, even in this well-off neighbourhood.
Of course we know the roots of the problem. Poverty makes people vulnerable. Then evil people exploit their dreams of a better life using deception, coercion and inevitably, violence. Victims end up in sweatshops, in mines or on farms, doing dirty, dodgy or dangerous manual work, or in the sex trade - enslaved and indebted to their masters, afraid or unable to escape. There is no money, no identity, no dignity, and no future in this heart of darkness.
The economy of human trafficking is significant. Since the world woke up to this terrible reality (about 10 years ago), the mass of people trafficked and exploited would populate a state like Kansas, producing an income equivalent also to that of Kansas, or Montana. And yet we don't see this tragedy in our own backyard?
Perhaps we do not want to see this very real and competitive state, as so many middle class, god-fearing, law-abiding citizens buy the products and the services produced on the cheap by slaves.
At the United Nations we talk a lot about failed states. Well, what can we do to make this state fail? As we cannot send blue-helmeted peacekeepers, we may like to volunteer ourselves as freedom fighters, and free the slaves.
We can count on effective weapons. (continues here)
READ THE FULL SPEECH AT unodc.org
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The slave trade was not abolished in the nineteenth century by the British Parliament or by the 13 th amendment to the US Constitution. Slavery is not part of history. It is with us and thrives in our backyard.
Slavery is a booming international trade, less obvious than two hundred years ago for sure, but all around us, even in this well-off neighbourhood.
Of course we know the roots of the problem. Poverty makes people vulnerable. Then evil people exploit their dreams of a better life using deception, coercion and inevitably, violence. Victims end up in sweatshops, in mines or on farms, doing dirty, dodgy or dangerous manual work, or in the sex trade - enslaved and indebted to their masters, afraid or unable to escape. There is no money, no identity, no dignity, and no future in this heart of darkness.
The economy of human trafficking is significant. Since the world woke up to this terrible reality (about 10 years ago), the mass of people trafficked and exploited would populate a state like Kansas, producing an income equivalent also to that of Kansas, or Montana. And yet we don't see this tragedy in our own backyard?
Perhaps we do not want to see this very real and competitive state, as so many middle class, god-fearing, law-abiding citizens buy the products and the services produced on the cheap by slaves.
At the United Nations we talk a lot about failed states. Well, what can we do to make this state fail? As we cannot send blue-helmeted peacekeepers, we may like to volunteer ourselves as freedom fighters, and free the slaves.
We can count on effective weapons. (continues here)
READ THE FULL SPEECH AT unodc.org
posted by Sarah G. at 10:45 AM
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