TWO petitions have been highlighted by Saffron Walden Churches Together to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. On March 25, 200 years will have passed since the end of the 450-year period when Africans were shipped as slaves t

TWO petitions have been highlighted by Saffron Walden Churches Together to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.

On March 25, 200 years will have passed since the end of the 450-year period when Africans were shipped as slaves to America. Sixteen years later, the Emancipation Act made it illegal to own slaves in the British Empire.

However, unpaid or very lowly paid work, child labour, and the sex trade, shows slavery is far from abolished.

The "Stop The Traffik" global petition can be signed in Saffron Walden

Baptist Church. Another petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/sextrafficking calls on the government to sign The Council of Europe's Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Humans.