Slavery today

Slavery today

« Slavery is an abominable crime(…) Nevertheless, slavery and slavery-related practices persisted in many parts of the world. This type of exploitation has been evolving and resurfacing under modern forms, such as debt bondage, child trafficking, and trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation. Slavery finds its roots in ignorance, intolerance and cupidity. It is our responsibility to create a climate in which such abuse and cruelty and unconceivable. One of the methods available is remembering the past and honoring the victims of the transatlantic slave trade. By keeping in mind past injustices, we are working towards the impossibility for such systematic violations of human rights to ever occur again. »

Message from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, during the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Slave Trade.

On a global scale, the progressive abolitions of the slave trade and of slavery spread over more than two centuries. But, although the legal fight is nearly complete, slavery remains a real scourge/plague.
The Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes also endeavors to remind people of the extreme emergency of the situation of today’s slaves.

In this way, with the past clarifying the present, the Memorial is an appeal to each visitor’s awareness of the world that surrounds them.