Argumentative Essay on Human Rights

Human rights date back to the beginning of time. One human right that people are not taking seriously is modern day slavery.

A lot of people thought that slavery ended when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation but the truth is that it is very much still alive. Many people are still enslaved all around the world. The people in China are enslaved because there are too many people in that country so the government is letting anyone do anything to cut down the size of the population. In Africa the Pirates are taking prisoners and using them as slaves. Also in Africa children are taken from their houses at night and forced to be in the army by a man named Kony. Kony has been invading villiges, making children kill their parents and all sorts of horrible things.

In India children are kidnapped from their villages when they are as young as five years old, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food. In India—as well in other countries—the issue of slavery is exacerbated by a rigid caste system. In Thailand girls are being captured and used as prostitutes. The slave trade in Africa was officially banned in the early 1880s, but forced labor continues to be practiced in West and Central Africa today. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from this region are sold into slavery each year.

Many of these children are from Benin and Togo, and are sold into the domestic, agricultural, and sex industries of wealthier, neighboring countries such as Nigeria and Gabon. In Senegambia, between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved. In Sierra Leone in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of enslaved people. I think that we all need to do something to stop all this, even the little thing like giving money for this cause can help a lot.