Millions of people are under the exploitative reins of slavery today – exactly 45.8 million individuals too many. While this is the reality for children, women, and men around the world, this fact comes to the dismay of many others and rightfully so, for modern-day slavery is an unthinkable thing: a scourge in our nation’s past, long ago abolished and an all-around recognized injustice. Modern-day slavery, in all its forms, should have no place in the 21st century.
This ultimate form of degradation goes beyond a violation of the law and of human rights; it defies our collective conscience, stripping the dignity of life and reducing people to negligible commodities for sale and barter. It is a plague so heinous on our global society and rightfully demands our efforts and resources to succeed in its eradication.
However, awareness of modern-day slavery and the fact that more individuals are enslaved today than at any other point in human history is limited in our public discussion, allowing traffickers and perpetrators to continue thriving in the shadows.
This February 23 is the END IT Movement’s Shine a Light on Slavery day, with the aim of starting this conversation in our schools, homes, and communities and encouraging others to join the fight for ensuring the freedom of all.
Our government has already reinvigorated its efforts to lead the charge in this global fight for human dignity. On February 15, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing entitled “Ending Modern Slavery: Building on Success,” dedicated, for the third year in a row, to highlighting the END IT Movement’s Shine a Light on Slavery Day. Committee chairman Senator Bob Corker presided over the hearing, which also underscored Congressional successes in combating trafficking and slavery. Reflective of our common consensus of slavery’s unconscionable existence domestically and in nations abroad, significant bipartisan support in the Senate helped pass the End Modern Slavery Initiative (EMSI) Act in December 2016. This antislavery legislation, which was initially introduced by Senator Corker and Senator Menendez, calls for the integration of matching funds from the United States and foreign governments in conjunction with the private sector with the aim of recovering survivors, enforcing the law, and achieving substantive reductions of modern-day slavery in areas of concentration within the period of seven years. One of the highlights of Wednesday’s hearing was circulated widely on social media; Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, an organization which builds software technology to fight the sex trafficking and exploitation of children, gave an emotional testimony advocating for a society and government that ensures, in his words, "the right to pursue happiness.” His leadership in this cause of justice was at the forefront of this hearing, demonstrating the way in which a large platform and passion can be put to use for the greater social good, as I am certain that the circulation of his impassioned testimony on Wednesday widened the awareness of many to this grave global injustice.
On February 23, help Shine a Light on Slavery. You can take part in this awareness campaign by simply posting a picture with a red X on your hand on social media, just as Ashton Kutcher and several Senators on the committee donned pins featuring END IT's red X in the hearing to honor those suffering under the exploitation of slavery. You can help ensure the full funding of the EMSI Act by signing and sharing this International Justice Mission petition, which calls on our Congressional representatives and the New Administration to support this legislation. You may also read and share my earlier article to get more ideas, with 10 ways you can help end modern-day slavery.
Antislavery efforts are the core of my human rights concerns and social justice work. As a freedom fighter, I will continue to advocate on behalf of children, survivors and my fellow brothers and sisters until we END IT.
