Many people hear the word slavery and it congures up images of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

[QU0TE]“Child labour has serious consequences that stay with the individual and with society for far longer than the years of childhood. Young workers not only face dangerous working conditions. They face long term physical, intellectual and emotional stress. They face an adulthood of unemployment and illiteracy.”
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan [/QUOTE]

Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their ‘employers’.

Today despite that Slavery is prohibited by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.

We can see women from eastern Europe are bonded into prostitution, children are trafficked between West African countries and men are forced to work as slaves on Brazilian agricultural estates. Contemporary slavery takes various forms and affects people of all ages, sex and race.

What is slavery?

Common characteristics distinguish slavery from other human rights violations. A slave is:

* forced to work — through mental or physical threat;

* owned or controlled by an ‘employer’, usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse;

* dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as ‘property’;

* physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement.

This type of bonded labour affects at least 20 million people worldwide. The worst forms of child labour affects an estimated 179 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.

On the 12th June 2005 the annual Big Feat for Little Feet sponsored walk will be held.

Registration costs just £10 (free for under-13s), and a sponsorship target of £100 (£25 if under 13).

When: Sunday 12 June 2005
Where: Kensington Gardens (next to the Albert Memorial), London
Time: 12.00pm

Contact Raj Dasani at r.dasani@antislavery.org for details.
Every footstep takes us closer to ending child slavery.