When we deny others - or ourselves - their basic rights, we strip our victims of their ability to be their best.  This is never a good thing.  These acts of denial can take many forms, ranging from the thoughtless to the intentional, the mild to the severe and the isolated to the culturally sanctioned.  Victims experience inequality; discrimination; threats to life, liberty and personal security; slavery; torture and degradation.  There is nothing endearing about any of these consequences.

All forms result in human exploitation in one form or another.  Human exploitation is the selfish or unethical use of human beings to meet the exploiter’s own desires.  Whatever their form, there is always a cost to these abuses and that cost extends beyond the victims to society in general.

Examples of these travesties include: sexism, racism and all the other isms; rape and other forms of sexual assault; domestic violence; human trafficking (modern day slavery); bullying; stalking; and emotional and psychological abuse.  All forms of abuse and exploitation can best be understood as incidents of violence.

We cannot end these abuses if we don’t understand what is happening.  To help educate you about some of the more outrageous forms, we offer information about what is happening in the world and here in the United States, and information about how you can help if you choose.

Forms of human exploitation addressed are:

• Human Trafficking:  This is the name for modern day slavery.  People are being bought and sold for labor and sex around the world at alarming and ever-increasing rates.

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
Albert Einstein