President Obama has declared January to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In his declaration, he commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed men, women and their children from lesser human status, living as slaves in our own country. Slavery didn't end as swiftly as President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but 150 years later I live in a country where slavery is certainly abolished and laws against it are swiftly enforced.
In South Asia, and many other developing nations in southeast Asia, men, women and their children are still treated -- and tagged -- as lesser humans, living as slaves. These modern day slaves are exploited sexually, robbed of the fruit of their hard labor and trapped in a cycle that spins madly on, without sufficient, practical law enforcement.
IJM educates and equips local public justice systems with resources they need to abolish slavery from their corner of our increasingly flat world. There are other government and non-profit agencies working to do the same. And there are individuals, like me and like you, who are speaking up to demand a change. To demand an end to slavery, for good. And for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment