Slavery in the 21st Century

In the United States and Europe it is known as “Human Trafficking” and “Sex Slavery”. The slavery of the 21st century primarily affects women and children. It is estimated that over half a million women and young girls are either kidnapped or lured into sexual slavery and kept as such by forced drug addiction and coercion. These unfortunate victims of inhumanity and cruelty are forced into prostitution and pornography for the profit of their masters. Human trafficking is a billion dollar global criminal enterprise.

 

Human trafficking is the most prevalent form of slavery in the more affluent countries, while child labor remains the dominant form in the third world. Hidden from the eyes of the west are factories and mines that utilize small children as an integral part of their labor force. Many of these children are killed or mutilated by heavy machinery with which they are forced to labor.

The Grand Orient of the United States of America, Accepted Free-Masons, is opposed to all forms of human slavery. Many Americans wrongly believe that slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War in 1865, when in fact only the right to own other human beings was outlawed. Slavery comes in many forms, and direct ownership of other human beings is but one of many.

A part of the solution to these issues is public awareness. Every American, and more especially every Freemason, needs to become educated about these issues and begin to inform others about them. As a nation and fraternity dedicated to the inalienable rights of man, which include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, we must not sit idly by in the face of such abuse and human suffering. It is our moral responsibility to respond with a loud and clear voice that we will no longer tolerate slavery of any kind in any quarter of the world.

For more information about Human Trafficking and Child Labor please see the following:

http://www.humantrafficking.org

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves

http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html

http://www.stopchildlabor.org