Mauritania Abolishes Slavery

Mauritania, a country in North West Africa, officially abolished slavery today in its parliament. The country has a dubious record of being one of the leaders in the world for slave trade. With this passage of this bill offenders will be given a sentence of 5-10 years in jail. In the World there are estimated to be any where from 12 million to 200 million slaves in the world.The U.N. defines a slave as anyone whose movement or decision making abilities are curtailed such that they do not have the right to choose employers. This definition would cover bonded labour to child labour. Debt bondage is one of the most common forms of slavery. This is where labour is exchanged for debt owing.However the worker may be underage,conditions of work may be unsafe and under paid in relations to normal wages. These debts are usually inflated or illegal( ie a parent may give her chid to work thinking that this will reduce her debt). Then these people are held against their will or to the extreme sold. Women in Eastern Europe are being sold for sexual slaves as I write this. Women and children are the most vulnerable to debt bondage.
Modern-day slaves can be found laboring as servants or concubines in Sudan, as child "carpet slaves" in India, or as cane-cutters in Haiti and southern Pakistan, to name but a few instances.

Darfur: A Reflection of our World

Today the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, released an alarming report about the abuses that the woman of Darfur have been subject to. This is rape. Members of the Sudanese army and the Armed Militia routinely rape women at gun point; as they gather food for their animals and firewood, saying that they must cooperate or die.
The UN has promised to have a contigent of 24,000 troops in place to moniter the situation. These troops will come from various countries. Hilary Clinton,when asked if she would send troops to th Sudan,said she would sent support in the form of aid if she was President. I have not heard any response from President Bush.
It is estimated that more than 200,000 have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.The situation in Darfur is a sad testimony to the state of the world where humans have no respect for other human beings. To rape and kill attentionly,relfects on all of us,and how man has truly not progressed much from ancient times.