By Emmanuel Argo

Human trafficking takes many forms, the most common being prostitution, slavery and forced labor…

On November 14, 2017, still victims of our ability to forget, of our indifference or immersed in our own difficulties, we discovered, stunned by the news, that Libyans were trading in human beings for slavery, taking advantage of a manna of men, women and children whom they retain on their coasts in order to avoid their crossing to Europe. Wasn't Gaddafi kept in power for these same services? The practice is still rampant, only this time it may be a matter of scale and as we are conditioned to react only to quantitative evidence, we are offended!

But that's not all. Without the accreditation of this information by Amnesty International, whose credibility no one would dare to question, we are "authorized" to express our revolt. The all-out information that keeps us informed second after second on the state of the world forces us to prioritize the horrors whereas, in the same way as the Shoa, the gulags and other European, African, Asian genocides... the commodification of human beings humans is a crime against our humanity and we are so responsible that we cannot say this time: I did not know.

Now that the unsustainable is known and recognized, what do we do?

The question to be resolved urgently is the following: why do such practices still exist when our Western democracies, for having known and practiced such crimes, have addressed to the world a universal declaration of human rights. Would this beautiful idea only be worth to give a good conscience to those who launched it? Or to conceal de facto collusion?

There are several:

• Moral collusion.

That of the religious orders first, like political decision-makers, more attached to defending their prebends, to defending, even to extending their sphere of influence, than to agreeing to protect humanity from his crimes.

Then, why do our "knowledgeable", great novelists, philosophers go to war for Iraq and Libya, pretenders and pretenders to the supreme office, givers of lessons and seekers of reparations that can never be satisfied? , have they not mobilized as we would have wished for the defense of other freedoms. Hay dreams, living together for which I continue to plead, can only find its meaning if already the above-mentioned of the black community and other visible, not only in Europe, but in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean are beginning to show moral solidarity. By issuing a simple gesture of solidarity together, whatever our origins and our social status, we will tell the world that trafficking in human beings is no longer possible, that it is a scourge that from now on we will no longer accept. That leaders and other moral authorities must take all necessary measures to eradicate it.

• economic collusion.

The economies, the technological progress, the comfort of the developed countries depends on the wealth in raw materials of which the African continent is rich. Should Western financial centers alone continue to set the course in these primary ways?

As long as a fair economic and societal complementarity is not put in place, the imbalance will persist and exile will continue. It is not the thunderous dismissal of such and such a dictator, or his publicized judgment before an international tribunal that will change things. Because it is another way of masking an organization that benefits some at the expense of others. Even if there is no doubting the morality and effectiveness of humanitarian NGOs, their cause, however just, helps keep thousands of children, men and women in poverty. As long as the powerful multinationals, with the complicity of leaders, continue their deadly race towards profit, in defiance of the value of men and the fragile balance of our planet, as long as they flout the right of peoples to freely dispose of their land and their raw materials, as long as they despoil peoples and kill local economies by exporting agricultural or manufactured goods, we will witness the commodification of ideas and people.

As for me, a descendant of Creole negroes born in the land of France, particularly sensitive to the black question in our contemporary world, I am the author of:

Hands off the money of the poor. Thanks to the Remittances prefaced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa. The purpose of this book and of the international neologism Remittances – money sent by migrants to their families back home – is to highlight the financial and economic system represented by the work of economic migrants around the world. /p>

Furthermore, I remind you that in 2007, during a meeting of civil society organized by the G8 and the World Bank in Berlin, it was an entire assembly that I forced to stand up to commemorate the abolition of slavery practiced legally and governed by the Black Code.

In this same book, pages 48, 49, 50 and 51, I highlight the serious violations of human rights in the Emirates: confiscation of passports, slavery, mistreatment of migrants mainly from Africa, Bangladesh, Philippines etc.

Finally, in my book, I propose freezing the prices of basic necessities in the poorest regions of the world and avenues for local development from the Remittances in a win-win relationship.

In 2008, as a member of TICAD/ C-CFA (Tokyo International Conference on African Development and Civil Society Commission of Africa), I proposed the Africa Mundus Program which aims to promote the return of migrants wishing to settle in their country of origin, but also to support the establishment of local businesses that they intend to create.

In an article 05/10/2016 published on the Huffington post entitled: Reception of refugees: Europe is not an Eldorado, I denounce the criminal excesses of uncontrolled immigration and deprivation, for the countries of origin, intelligence and skills, which, if they remained, would promote development. Also in 2016, following the migration tragedy and the discovery of little Alyan, a three-year-old Syrian, found dead on a Turkish beach, the philosopher of science Patrick Tort and I sent a letter to the presidents of the main European bodies open entitled: Letter to Europeans in which I also proposed European funding, the creation of a Remitt@nces tax to help migrants stay in areas of stabilized peace while participating in the development of local economies. Addressed to the main media, only the newspaper l'Humanité published it.

Many initiatives would require coordination based on means going beyond European support, because the problem is global in nature. In support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while updating it, I propose to prepare a resolution aimed at drafting and adopting a universal and concord charter for the eradication of slavery and human trafficking in all its forms; the UN must be the guarantor of the dignity of the human person. By declaring the commodification of mankind as a planetary scourge, this Charter will complete the equally urgent question of the economic, social and cultural upheavals linked to the consequences of global warming. In a nutshell, if we do not resolve the issue of economic migration, we will not be able to anticipate the migration of climate refugees.

If we refuse to let our comfort be, as it was during centuries of slavery, at the cost of the dignity, freedom and life of certain men on the grounds that they are black and poor, we can radically change the course of things.

Our just fight for the planet must not overshadow that of humanity; if we accept the commodification of human beings, even if we do not prevent the atmosphere from increasing by 2 degrees, we are acting against ourselves. Poverty, war are no excuses for our cowardice.

Made in France on 22/11/2017

1 Emmanuel Argo is French born in France, he is the author of:

Nelson Mandela and the birth of the new South Africa

International neologism: Remitt@nces

From the neologism and concept of: The NegroEvolution

Is co-author of the book: NEPAD and the African Renaissance

Prefaced the book: Who Threatens Peace and Stability in Africa?