Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

August 25, 2005

This week marked the official anniversary of the end of slavery, commemorated by the United Nations sponsored International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

Yet the fact that slavery thrives in our modern world is made clear in the Trafficking in Persons Report, released by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons of the US State Department on June 3, 2005, where US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice pointed out, "for millions of people entrapped each year in vicious schemes of labor and sex trafficking, freedom is denied. These trafficking victims are deprived of their most basic human rights and fall into modern-day slavery."

	Courtesy of the US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report of June 3, 2004

According to this report, of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors.

The report goes on to state that while there is no way to accurately measure how many people are enslaved today, the estimated figure approaches 12.3 million people, which includes those who are victims of forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude or involuntary servitude. "Some leave developing countries, seeking to improve their lives through low-skilled jobs in more prosperous countries. Others fall victim to forced or bonded labor in their own countries. Some families give children to related or unrelated adults who promise education and opportunity — but deliver the children into slavery — for money."

"The slave trade, slavery and abolition belong to history. They are not, however, solely of the past," said Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

She went on to state: "The commemoration of this day of 23 August assumes a special meaning this year; it is taking place after the events that marked 2004, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly ‘International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition’, which was widely celebrated the world over and raised great hopes. It also coincides with the tenth anniversary of the ‘Slave Route Project’, whose evaluation showed the interest and expectations raised the world over.

"The dynamic created by the International Year invites us to intensify efforts to ensure that the slave trade and slavery are seen as a tragedy affecting the whole of humankind. UNESCO has not only the duty to remember but also an ethical obligation to act as watchdog."