How We Can End Slavery

With 27 million people in slavery today, how can we ever
hope to eradicate this horror? In fact, this generation, after
5,000 years of human slavery, can bring it to an end.
The anti-slavery movement was the world's first human-
rights campaign. Growing not from politicians, but from
everyday people, it swept away legal slavery. In the early
20th century courageous campaigners, fighting both
financial interests and governments, brought an end to the
continuing slavery in places like the Congo.
Those heroes won great battles for us. Today we do not
have to win the legal argument—laws against slavery exist
in every country. In the past many national economies were
based on the profits of slavery, but now we do not have to
win an economic argument. If all slavery stopped today, no
industry or country would suffer economically; Only the
criminals who profit from slavery would be disadvantaged.
And today we do not have to win the moral argument;
almost everyone in the world agrees that slavery is wrong.
To bring people to freedom and to end slavery, three things
have to happen:
1. Public awareness has to grow, and there has to be public
agreement that it is time to end slavery once and for all.
This public commitment must be communicated to
politicians.
2. Money needs to be spent to eradicate slavery, but not
nearly as much as you might think. For the price of a
bomber or a battleship, the amount of slavery in the world
could be dramatically reduced.
3. Governments must enforce their own anti-slavery laws.
To make this happen every country has to understand that
they must take action or face serious pressure. We all know
about the United Nations weapons inspectors, who enforce
the Conventions against Weapons of Mass Destruction, but
where are the United Nations Slavery Inspectors? When the
same effort is put behind searching out and ending slavery,
there will be rapid change.
While the 27 million people enslaved today are the largest
number of slaves alive at any time in human history, they
are also the smallest proportion of the world population to
ever be held in slavery. No one wants to live in a world with
slavery. Today the slaveholders are weaker than they have
ever been, and there is universal agreement that slavery
must end. In South Asia whole villages come to freedom
when others help them form institutions such as small
credit unions, inform them of their rights, and show them
how to organize to fight for them. Slaves everywhere
outnumber their masters. When we all stand with the slaves,
their masters cannot keep them in bondage. It is true that
criminal mafias control some of the traffic in people, and
they will be difficult to root out. But slavery will end if
corruption is tackled, victims are treated with respect, and
those of us who are free decide to support all those who
help others to freedom.
Imagine that after 5,000 years of slavery we commit
ourselves to achieving its eradication in our lifetimes.
Imagine that your generation will be the one that is looked
back on in history as the generation that ended slavery.
Imagine that your children and your grandchildren will grow
up in a world where slavery is just seen as an ugly blot on
our history.
Imagine a world where every person is born in freedom and
lives in liberty.
All this is possible, just follow these three steps:
1. Learn! Become aware of how slavery touches your life.
For more information, visit www.freetheslaves.net , and read
"Disposable People." Then download our Teaching Pack.
2. Join! Work with others who want to live in a world
without slavery. Free the Slaves is one American
organization fighting slavery worldwide.
3. Act! Bring your strength and imagination to ending
slavery.