COMBATING HUMAN BONDAGE

I can think of two effective strategies Americans can pursue to combat human bondage in the world. One is to pressure our own Congressional leaders into requiring the Bush administration (and the one to follow) into recognizing that sex slavery is not the only slavery occurring in the U.S. According to an article in Foreign Policy (March/April 2008), 17,500 new slaves enter the U.S. each year, yet the Justice Dept. releases less than only 2 percent. It is question of priorities.

A second front is to pressure the U.S. government into pressuring the U.N. to increase its pressure on member countries. (This, of course, is one of the main problems of the U.N.: it is an organization of member states, not an organization with much power delegated to it from member states.) Every country in the world has laws against slavery, yet little is done in many countries that have slavery. For example, South Asia has 10 million of the 27 million humans enslaved in the world today. India has the greatest number of any country.

To conclude, keep the pressure on, especially on the U.S. government to take greater action within the U.S. and to pressure the U.N. to do more.