Child slavery in Haiti

Jocelyn McCalla:

August 23rd marks the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. We observe it on this date because two hundred and fifteen years ago slaves, in what is today Haiti, rose up and threw off the shackles of their enslavement. Thirteen years later in 1804, they triumphed, making Haiti the first nation in the world founded on the abolishment of slavery.

Shockingly, child slavery flourishes in Haiti today in the form of the restavek system. Just an hour and a half from Disney World, tens of thousands of children live as restavek, or child slaves

Child slavery in Haiti may be the ultimate symbol of a state that has failed its most vulnerable members. It lays bare the appalling lack of access to basic goods and services. It also brings into sharp focus the reality that most parents in Haiti lack the fundamental tools to demand that local and national government help them meet the needs of their children and provide them with a decent future.

The lost children of Haiti

Seeking opportunity, Haitian children find slavery

Haiti: Rights Group Calls For End To Child Slavery

Haitian children sold as cheap labourers and prostitutes for little more than £50