I have begun to pay more attention to the crucial human rights issue of slavery, which by its imposition on human beings, denies human exceptionalism and our intrinsic moral worth. Happily, my think tank the Discovery Institute is moving in the same direction. John R. Miller—who I had the great pleasure of meeting during a recent visit to Washington DC—is the DI’s senior fellow working in the area of human rights—with a particular interest in combating slavery. He is a former congressman and for the last several years was a diplomat in the State Department in charge of monitoring human trafficking.
In this NRO piece, Miller urges Freedom House to live up to its name and tradition of excellence by focusing more closely on issues of slavery and human trafficking. Here are a few of his key points:
“What Freedom House has constructed is an index that measures the freedom of the free. If you are a slave, you do not count in the Freedom House index. More importantly, the efforts of those attempting to save you in your adopted country are not weighed in Freedom House’s ratings. This approach may reflect the thinking of Aristotle but not of Frederick Douglass.
Freedom House might argue that it cannot evaluate modern day slavery since no government today has laws sanctioning slavery, and most have laws banning the practice. But this argument would contradict the premise of most of Freedom House’s report. When it assesses political rights and civil liberties in countries, Freedom House looks not just at the existence or absence of laws, but how the laws are implemented and enforced.
Freedom House should take the same approach with modern-day slavery and ask some of the following questions:
*Are the anti-human trafficking laws being ignored or carried out? Are human traffickers and other perpetrators being punished?
*Are the victims helped or punished?
*Are civil and religious groups who fight modern day slavery merely tolerated or encouraged?
*Is the society that creates the demand for slaves being educated so as to reduce demand?
These are questions that are already being asked by the U.S. State Department and many abolitionist organizations. Modern-day slavery is emerging as a premier human-rights and freedom issue of the 21st century. The illustrious organization with ‘freedom’ in its name can no longer afford to look the other way.”
I hope to work closely with John on issues of mutual concern and keep the readers of Secondhand Smoke apprised of his work on these matters.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
