Today we celebrate an awareness about Human Trafficking. This day is observed annually on January 11th.
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day raises awareness about human trafficking and sexual slavery around the world and has the goal of ending slavery, giving people back their rights, and making the world a safer place for everyone. These observances were started in 2011 by Presidential Proclamation of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
On June 22, 2007, the United States Senate designated January 11 as National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness, in an effort to raise awareness of and opposition to human trafficking. The Senate designated the day with the passing of a resolution, but the House of Representatives never passed it, so it never became law.
Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This can be providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extraction of organs or tissues, including for surrogacy and ova removal.
Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. It is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim’s rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation. It is all about trading people. The arrangement may be structured as a work contract, but with no or low payment, or on terms which are highly exploitative. Sometimes the arrangement is structured as debt bondage, with the victim not being permitted or able to pay off the debt.
Somewhere between 20 and 40 million people are enslaved around the world, more than at any other time in history. Most cases are hidden and go undetected. Over two-thirds of slaves are women and girls, and the average cost of a slave is $90. There is not just one type of slavery—the list is varied: children forced into being soldiers, young women forced into prostitution or marriage, and forced labor or the exploitation of migrant workers.
So, today, celebrate this day by learning more about National Human Trafficking and let others know to raise awareness about the importance of human exploitation. Share on social media using #HumanTraffickingDay.
1908 Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument
On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.
Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn’t until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Because of its remote and inaccessible location, several centuries passed before North American settlers really explored the canyon. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell led a group of 10 men in the first difficult journey down the rapids of the Colorado River and along the length of the 277-mile gorge in four rowboats.
By the end of the 19th century, the Grand Canyon was attracting thousands of tourists each year. One famous visitor was President Theodore Roosevelt, a New Yorker with a particular affection for the American West. After becoming president in1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley, Roosevelt made environmental conservation a major part of his presidency. After establishing the National Wildlife Refuge to protect the country’s animals, fish and birds, Roosevelt turned his attention to federal regulation of public lands.
(excerpted from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/theodore-roosevelt-makes-grand-canyon-a-national-monument)
