Darwin the abolitionist. "The theory of evolution is regarded as a triumph of disinterested scientific reason. Yet, on the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, new research reveals that Darwin was driven to the idea of common descent by a great moral cause." [Via]
posted by homunculus on Feb 8, 2009 - 24 comments

Sold to Be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma. [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Oct 30, 2007 - 6 comments

From Hunter to Hunted "In his quest to free slaves around the world, Aaron Cohen thought he’d seen it all. Then he went to Myanmar."
posted by homunculus on Jul 1, 2007 - 25 comments

From the Hands of Slaves: Common products of forced labor. [Via MoFi.]
posted by homunculus on Feb 25, 2006 - 18 comments

The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps (PDF) is a new report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea on North Korea's prison system for political prisoners. Using testimony and satellite photography, the report documents the kwan-li-so (political penal-labor colonies) and kyo-hwa-so (long-term prison-labor camps,) in which hundreds of thousands of political prisoners work as slave laborers, and are subjected to starvation diets and torture. Also documented are the jip-kyul-so repatriation centers along the Chinese border, where forced abortion and infanticide are common. Unsurprisingly, many North Korean defectors are haunted by guilt over loved ones left behind.
posted by homunculus on Oct 23, 2003 - 9 comments

Bittersweet chocolate. "Of the $1.1 billion in boxed chocolates that Americans are expected to buy on Valentine's Day, very little will be untainted by the scourge of child labor. Although some who buy those bonbons will do so without knowing the sinister history of their purchases, others, like the chocolate makers, will have known for at least two years, if not longer, that cocoa beans imported from the Ivory Coast -- used to make nearly half the chocolate consumed in this country -- are harvested in large part by children, some as young as 9, and many of whom are considered slaves, trafficked from desperately poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso."
posted by homunculus on Feb 13, 2003 - 36 comments

My Gun was as Tall as Me is a new report by Human Rights Watch about children forced to become soldiers in Burma (Myanmar). They estimate as many as 70,000 soldiers are under 18, some as young as 11. (Previous posts about Burma and modern slavery.)
posted by homunculus on Oct 16, 2002 - 4 comments

Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organization, says that 27 million people around the world live in slavery. That is a staggering number. (More information on slavery at iAbolish). Also, the OSCE says that the trafficking of humans has become the world's largest illegal business. The advancement of international human rights has a long way to go.
posted by homunculus on Jul 16, 2002 - 5 comments