The presence of 27 millions of children, women and men
enslaved in the XXI century all over the world is disturbing. Slavery is banned
in most countries and prohibited by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the
1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave
Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, yet slaves are found everywhere, in rich
and poor countries though the majority are in India and African
countries. Today’s slavery is less obvious but more abundant than in 1888 when
Lavigerie undertook the anti-slavery campaign. Though called other names, the conditions of exploitation are similar. People are controlled against their will under threat of violence, sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and cannot walk away. They are forced into a life which is exploitative, humiliating and abusive and represents an appalling assault on the dignity of human beings. Women and children make up the vast majority of victims. Yet today like in the past many are committed to fight slavery, so that all human beings may live in freedom and dignity.
Slavery is the reduction of
human beings to being mere commodities that are sold and bought for profit as
are any other “goods”. Modern slavery is symptomatic of the capitalistic system
where profits are more important than human beings and where some people are
ready to profit from the exploitation and suffering of other humans.
Forced labour, debt bondage, human trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and labour camps are today’s hidden
institutions of slavery and the euphemisms used to hide the reality of
“slavery”. This contributes to the general ignorance of slavery in our society.
All are aspects of forced labour, where actual coercion (often
with violence) is exercised by a
third party to force the slave to undertake a work or service against his/her
will. Forced labour and human
trafficking are closely linked. However,
while most victims of trafficking end up in forced labour, not all victims of
forced labour are in this situation as a result of trafficking.
Begoña Iñarga, MSOLA
