On bicentennial of slave trade’s end, UN urges action halt to today''s slavery and exploitation by UN News / Reuters 4:02am 28th Mar, 2007   26 March 2007    On bicentennial of slave trade’s end, UN officials urge halt to modern-day exploitation.    In commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and honouring the bravery of those who opposed it, top United Nations officials today called for stepped-up efforts to end modern-day slavery, including human trafficking.    “We celebrate the fact that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said at a special meeting convened by the General Assembly in New York. “Yet around the world, millions of people are still deprived of their most fundamental human rights and freedoms.”    On 25 March 1807, the British Parliament banned the slave trade, often referred to as the first example of globalization, throughout its Empire, marking the end of trans-Atlantic trafficking in human beings. Finally in 1833, an act was passed emancipating British slaves.    Millions of those forcibly taken from Africa died en route, in what is known as the middle passage across the Atlantic, to their destinations, while many others perished due to terrible conditions at the other end.    “Two hundred years ago, courageous women and men around the world stood up for freedom,” Ms. Migiro said. “Today, we must do the same. We must act together to stop crimes that deprive countless victims of their liberty, dignity and human rights.”    Citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa said that fortunes were made on the backs of an estimated 13 million slaves during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.    Sheikha Haya also said that while African traders such as Antera Duke and tribal leaders were complicit in the slave trade, some of the continent’s rulers resisted, including King Alfonso of Kongo in the 16th century and Queen Njingha Mbando of Ndongo, or what is today Angola, in the 17th century.    “It is hard to believe that what would now be a crime against humanity was legal at this time,” she said in a statement read by acting Assembly President Boniface Chidyausiku of Zimbabwe.    “While reflecting on the past, we also need to acknowledge the unspeakable cruelty that persists today,” she said, calling for a redoubling of efforts to end such practices as bonded labour, forced recruitment of child soldiers and the illegal sex trade.    The UN Children’s Fund estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, and are used as domestic servants, factory workers, camel jockeys, soldiers and sex slaves. Children are the most vulnerable to human rights abuses and are also the least able to defend themselves.    Last November, in a resolution designating 25 March 2007 as the International Day to commemorate the 200th bicentennial of the end of the slave trade, the General Assembly said that the slave trade and its legacy are “at the heart of situations of profound social and economic inequality, hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, which continue to affect people of African descent today.”    The resolution also voiced concern that it took the international community almost two centuries to acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade are both crimes against humanity and should always have been considered as such.    Representing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Saint Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Denzil Douglas said that all regions of the world are “inexorably linked by the appalling practice” of slavery, and he urged that the suffering of the slaves and sacrifices made by those who fought against the slave trade never be forgotten.    “We must remain steadfast in our efforts to fully eradicate the scourges that continue to plague our world,” Mr. Douglas said, urging that human rights violations, racism, human trafficking and underdevelopment be overturned.    South Africa’s Ambassador, Dumisani S. Kumalo, speaking on behalf of the African States, said the continent “is still nursing the wounds of slavery.” Even after the abolition of the slave trade which “robbed our continent of our best people,” Mr. Kumalo noted that colonialism and the “unequalled oppression driven by greed and expansionism” further impoverished the African people.    In a press briefing after the Assembly session, Rex Nettleford, professor and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, told reporters that among the many injustices done to slaves was the denial of their “capacity to think.”    Mr. Nettleford, who also spoke at the Assembly meeting, also pointed out that while the slave trade was ended 200 years ago, the system of slavery and “all the obscenities indulged by slave masters” continued for several decades more in parts of the Caribbean and the United States.    26.3.2007.    Ghana marks end of slave trade. (Reuters)    Two hundred years after Britain"s abolition of the slave trade, Africans blamed the modern-day problems of their continent on the slave trade.    Ghana held a ceremony today to mark the 200th anniversary at a white-washed former slave fort in Elmina, a port that dispatched hundreds of thousands of Africans to a life of subjugation in the New World.    More than 10 million Africans — some estimates say up to 60 million — were sent on slave ships. Many perished on the voyage or on disease-infested plantations.    "We have seen the manipulation, the impoverishment of Africa ... That is testament to the effects of slavery," South African jazz icon Hugh Masekela told a news conference. "There is no price, no price for what has been done."    Portugal built sub-Saharan Africa"s first permanent slave trading post at Elmina in 1492.    It passed into English hands and by the 18th century shipped tens of thousands of Africans a year through "the door of no return" on to squalid slave ships bound for the Americas.    "It was so bad the way they maltreated our forefathers, the way they chained them and imprisoned them for so many years," said Anthony Kinful, 38, a storekeeper near the Elmina fort. "If I see white people now, I think badly of them."    After years of campaigning by anti-slavery activists such as politician William Wilberforce, Britain banned the trade in slaves from Africa on March 25, 1807.    Britain did not outlaw slavery until 1833. The transatlantic trade continued under foreign flags for many years.    A senior Church of England cleric called for British Prime Minister Tony Blair today to make a formal apology.    "A nation of this quality should have the sense of saying we are very sorry and we have to put the record straight," Archbishop of York John Sentamu told the BBC.    When Ghana"s President John Kufuor visited London this month, Mr Blair said Britain was sorry for the slave trade. But many Africans want more, including reparations.    The anniversary has raised awareness of modern-day forms of bondage, from illegal chattel slavery still practised in some nations in Africa"s dry Sahel belt, to mafias which traffic African girls as prostitutes to the West.    "The traffic in human beings is clearly not over," said Ghanaian poet Kofi Anyi Doho. "There are no boats to anchor next to a slave fort, but people are being forced into ... a form of enslavement all over the world."    In neighbouring Sierra Leone, one of the world"s poorest countries originally founded as a haven for freed slaves, journalist Samuel Beckley said Africa was still suffering.    "Slavery took away our strong men," Mr Beckley said at a church founded in 1808 by exiled Jamaican Maroons — slaves who revolted against British rule.    "The economic potential of Africa was put in reverse gear ... The only way to make amends is reparations."    Britain"s first black cabinet minister, Baroness Valerie Amos, herself a descendant of slaves who was born in Guyana, described slavery as "one of the most shameful and uncomfortable chapters in British history".    26.3.2007.    UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:    The story of the end of the slave trade deserves to be told here at the United Nations. Indeed, the defence of human rights is at the heart of this Organization’s global mission. Our Charter proclaims equal rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude”.    For too long, however, the transatlantic slave trade was a blight on the world. Terrible dehumanization prevailed during those centuries. Millions perished from the long march in Africa and the middle passage across the Atlantic. Millions were exploited under brutal conditions in the Americas, and saw their labour help build prosperous societies in which they had no say.    But if slavery epitomized inhumanity at its most callous, many rejected and fought it. Slaves rose up against their subjugation. Abolitionist movements sprang up. The emancipation of slaves was a triumph for all humankind, for it spoke of the inherent equal worth of human beings everywhere.    Two hundred years ago, United States President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation abolishing the slave trade. Later that same month, the British Parliament banned the slave trade throughout the British Empire. The tide had turned.    Today, as we commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, we celebrate the fact that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Yet, around the world, millions of people are still deprived of their most fundamental human rights and freedoms.    There should be no place in the twenty-first century for trafficking, forced labour or sexual exploitation. There should be no place for mass rape and other war crimes perpetrated against the most vulnerable in times of armed conflict. Children should not be forced to become soldiers, work in sweat shops or be sold by their families. The fact that these atrocities take place in our world today should fill us all with shame.    So let us not only look back on a tragic period of human history. Let us shine a light on the crimes against humanity that are taking place today, in the shadows all around us. And let us work to prevent them from happening in the future. Taking action is not only our legal obligation. It is our moral duty. It is a debt that we owe to all those we honour today.    Two hundred years ago, courageous women and men around the world stood up for freedom. Today, we must do the same. We must act together to stop crimes that deprive countless victims of their liberty, dignity and human rights. We must combat impunity with unwavering commitment. We must mobilize political will through domestic and international pressure. We must apply relentless and continuous scrutiny.    For all that has been accomplished in our campaign for human rights, we still have so much more to do.    26 March 2007    UN launches initiative to end ‘modern slavery’ of human trafficking.    The United Nations, Governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) today jointly launched The Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, choosing the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to fight a modern scourge that may entrap up to 27 million people at any given time in a market valued at $32 billion.    “Slavery is a booming international trade, less obvious than 200 years ago for sure, but all around us,” UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said.    “Perhaps we simply prefer to close our eyes to it, as many law-abiding citizens buy the products and the services produced on the cheap by slaves,” he added, noting that most victims of this modern-day slavery are women and young girls, many of whom are forced into prostitution or otherwise exploited sexually.    Trafficked men are found in fields, mines and quarries, or in other dirty and dangerous working conditions. Boys and girls are trafficked into conditions of child labour, within a diverse group of industries, such as textiles, fishing or agriculture.    Because human trafficking is a crime, and therefore clandestine, accurate numbers are not available. Many believe 2.5 million, the number given by international experts for those held in bondage through physical and/or psychological force at any one time, represents the tip of a much greater iceberg.    The UN International Labour Organization (ILO) calculates the minimum number of people in forced labour at 12.3 million, while research by Free the Slaves, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the United States, puts the number at 27 million.    Human trafficking has become big business. The UN and other experts estimate the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion, about $10 billion derived from the initial “sale” of individuals, with the remainder representing the estimated profits from the activities or goods produced by the victims of this barbaric crime.    Human trafficking is a global problem, which UNODC believes has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade. No country is immune, whether as a source, a destination or a transit point for victims of human trafficking.    A recent UNODC report called ‘Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns’ identifies Thailand, China, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine among the countries that are the greatest sources of trafficked persons. Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the US are cited as the most common destinations. Overall people from 127 countries are exploited in 137 nations.    The UN Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons, in effect since December 2003, makes human trafficking a crime, and has been ratified by more than 110 countries, but participating governments and their criminal justice systems have not effectively curbed the practice. Few criminals are convicted, and most victims never receive help; on the contrary, many victims themselves are convicted of offences such as illegal entry or unlawful residence.    Among its goals, the Global Initiative aims to raise public awareness throughout the world as part of a larger strategy to eliminate the practice by informing potential victims of the dangers, reducing demand for services and products that rely on slave labour, protecting victims and improving law enforcement methods.    Greater enforcement is essential. “The Protocol is only a piece of paper unless it is implemented,” Mr. Costa stressed, noting that in some countries, the power of organized crime, corruption and complicity of police stifle enforcement efforts. More resources, both money and personnel, are also needed.    “Everyone agrees trafficking is a problem, but funding for global action by UNODC has been less than $15 million for the past seven years, and not much better for other organizations,” he said. “We have the tools to do this but we do not have the political will, large scale public awareness or the resources to make it happen.”    * Visit Anti-Slavery International"s - "Breaking the Silence" to learn more about the history of enslavement of Africa that began over 500 years ago. Visit the related web page
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