Eric Chen//April 3, 2021
(Kaohsiung City)—March 16 is not just an ordinary day. It marks the annual My Freedom Day, a student-led recognition event to denounce modern slavery and human trafficking that is sponsored by the CNN. This celebrates our freedom to free speech, expression, and autonomy, yet modern slavery and human trafficking significantly undermine our rights to autonomy. With slavery being long abolished in MEDCs (more economically developed countries) like the United States back in 1863 with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, these two crimes sound extremely out of time in this modern world. With that in mind, it’s crucial for us to shine a light on the serious freedom infringements that these two crimes make on those people who were affected by them, and My Freedom Day is a very good way to do so.
As a member of the Kaohsiung American School Global Issues Network (GIN) club and a proud , I believe that slavery and human trafficking must be stopped in order for people to live a free, autonomous life, especially for low-income families who live in LEDCs (less economically developed countries). Citizens trying to escape their home country due to economic stress and/or civil war will only make this human trafficking situation worse (you can’t escape from there legally without engaging in it), while citizens trying to earn money by labor could easily get exploited by their employers, essentially turning themselves into slaves.
Sadly, with all these human rights and freedom exploitations going on, there is little understanding and effort by the general public to try to put an end to these abuses in freedom. Luckily, we can shine a better light onto these issues with My Freedom Day, and hopefully through this event, the general public will have a better understanding of these two crimes that undermine human rights and freedom, and take action against it in the future.
You can watch the videos that bring human trafficking and modern slavery into attention on this website: https://edition.cnn.com/specials/world/myfreedomday. Maybe you can see the videos that were created by KAS GIN Club members there too!