Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and its Abolition. This date was chosen by UNESCO to mark a night in 1791 in the island of Saint Dominic (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) when a major uprising took place which significantly contributed to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

A purpose of this day is to highlight the shamefulness of colonial slave trade, to remember the millions of people who suffered from it, and to come to terms with the past injustice…
Another purpose is to recognize the forms of slavery that still exist today, forms such as bonded labour, child labour, forced recruitment of child soldiers, human trafficking, and illegal sex trade. In 2008, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced:

“If we sincerely want to honour the suffering that slaves experienced and died under in the past, we must do much more to protect and promote the human rights, freedom and dignity of all people, in particularly, those who continue to suffer under modern forms of slavery.”

The Anti-Slavery International Group describes human trafficking as the fastest growing from of modern-day slavery. The majority of trafficked people are women and girls, and experts believe that most of them are sent from Africa and Eastern Europe for the sex trade in Western Europe. Chattel slavery, involving a class of hereditary slaves, still exists in parts of Africa, and bonded labour remains common in South Asia.

Ban Ki-moon also quoted Martin Luther King Jr., to illustrate the purpose of International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and its Abolition:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”

 

Also in August:

Raksha Bandhan – 2nd

International Day for World’s Indigenous People – 9th

Krishna Janmashtami – 10th

International Youth Day – 12th

Laylat al Qadr – 14th

World Humanitarian Day – August 19th

Eid-Ul-Fitr: Ramadan Ends

 

Tags: modern slavery, remembrance, Saint Dominic, slave trade, UNESCO

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under cost of getting it wrong, days of significance, General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.