Slavery In the Modern World

1. Slavery In the Modern World Konovalov Denis, TSU

2. What is modern slavery? • A slave is: • Forced to work -- through mental or physical threat. • Owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse. • Dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property’. • Physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement.

3. What types of slavery exist today? • Bonded labour affects at least 20 million people around the world. People become bonded labourers by taking or being tricked into taking a loan for as little as the cost of medicine for a sick child. To repay the debt, many are forced to work long hours, seven days a week, up to 365 days a year. They receive basic food and shelter as 'payment' for their work, but may never pay off the loan, which can be passed down for generations. • Early and forced marriage affects women and girls who are married without choice and are forced into lives of servitude often accompanied by physical violence. • Forced labour affects people who are illegally recruited by individuals, governments or political parties and forced to work -- usually under threat of violence or other penalties. • Slavery by descent is where people are either born into a slave class or are from a 'group' that society views as suited to being used as slave labour. • Trafficking involves the transport and/or trade of people -- women, children and men -- from one area to another for the purpose of forcing them into slavery conditions. • Worst forms of child labour affects an estimated 179 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.

4. Bonded labour • Bonded labour – or debt bondage – the least known form of slavery today, and yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. • A person becomes a bonded labourer when his or her labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. The person is then tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay, often for seven days a week. The value of their work is invariably greater than the original sum of money borrowed. • The United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery estimated in 1999 that some 20 million people are held in bonded labour around the world. • Bonded labour has existed for thousands of years. In South Asia it took root in the caste system and continues to flourish in feudal agricultural relationships. Bonded labour was also used as a method of colonial labour recruitment for plantations in Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia. • Bonded labourers are routinely threatened with and subjected to physical and sexual violence. They are kept under various forms of surveillance, in some cases by armed guards. There are very few cases where chains are actually used (although it does occur) but these constraints on the bonded labourers are every bit as real and as restricting.

5. Why does bonded labour continue to exist? • Poverty, and people prepared to exploit the desperation of others lies at the heart of bonded labour. Often without land or education, the need for cash just for daily survival forces people to sell their labour in exchange for a lump sum of money or a loan. • Despite the fact that bonded labour is illegal in most countries where it is found, governments are rarely willing to enforce the law, or to ensure that those who profit from it are punished.

6. Who are bonded labourers? • Entire families kept like cattle on agricultural estates in South Asia. • Children trafficked for profit in West Africa. • Women exported for domestic and sexual slavery in Europe and Asia.

7. Child labour • "Child labour has serious consequences that stay with the individual and with society for far longer than the years of childhood. Young workers not only face dangerous working conditions. They face long term physical, intellectual and emotional stress. They face an adulthood of unemployment and illiteracy." United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan

8. What is child labour? Millions of children do extremely hazardous work in harmful conditions, putting their health, education, personal and social development, and even their lives at risk. These are some of the circumstances they face: • Full time work at a very early age • Dangerous workplaces • Excessive working hours • Subjection to psychological, verbal, physical and sexual abuse • Obliged to work by circumstances or individuals • Limited or no pay • Work and life on the streets in bad conditions • Inability to escape from the poverty cycle -- no access to education

9. How big is the problem? • The International Labour Organization estimates there are 246 million working children aged between five and 17 • 179 million are estimated to work in the worst forms of child labour -- one in every eight of the world's five to 17 years olds • 111 million children under 15 are in hazardous work and should be "immediately withdrawn from this work" • 8.4 million children are in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities • Girls are particularly in demand for domestic work • Around 70 per cent of child workers carry out unpaid work for their families

10. Why do children work? • Most children work because their families are poor and their labour is necessary for their survival. Discrimination on grounds including gender, race or religion also plays its part in why some children work. • Children are often employed and exploited because, compared to adults, they are more vulnerable, cheaper to hire and are less likely to demand higher wages or better working conditions. Some employers falsely argue that children are particularly suited to certain types of work because of their small size and "nimble fingers". • For many children, school is not an option. Education can be expensive and some parents feel that what their children will learn is irrelevant to the realities of their everyday lives and futures. In many cases, school is also physically inaccessible or lessons are not taught in the child's mother tongue, or both. • As well as being a result of poverty, child labour also perpetuates poverty. Many working children do not have the opportunity to go to school and often grow up to be unskilled adults trapped in poorly paid jobs, and in turn will look to their own children to supplement the family's income.

11. Where do children work? • On the land • In households -- as domestic workers • In factories -- making products such as matches, fireworks and glassware • On the street -- as beggars • Outdoor industry: brick kilns, mines, construction • In bars, restaurants and tourist establishments • In sexual exploitation • As soldiers

12. What Is Trafficking? Is It Slavery? • Human trafficking involves the movement of people through violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of forced labour, servitude or slavery-like practices. • It is slavery because traffickers use violence, threats, and other forms of coercion to force their victims to work against their will. This includes controlling their freedom of movement, where and when they will work and what pay, if any, they will receive.

13. Prostitution • Annually in the countries of the European union it is illegally thrown with the purpose of sexual operation of 500,000 women and girls. The gangs, engaged this craft, receive on sexual operation and a slave labour of women only in the Europe profit at a rate of 7 billion US dollars. "Frauennews" • Annually to the United States for sexual operation it is taken out from 50,000 up to 100,000 women and children. • Profit on transportation of women reaches $7 billion - $12 billion a year. (Based on materials of Associated Press)

14. Where is trafficking found? How many people are trafficked? • Trafficking is a global problem affecting every continent and most countries. It occurs within and across national borders and ranks as one of the most lucrative forms of international crime. • It is impossible to know and statistics are difficult to obtain because trafficking is an underground activity. A US Government report published in 2004, estimates that 600,000-800,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year. This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally.

15. Classification: The U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act, enacted in October 2000, requires the department to submit an annual report to Congress on the status of severe forms of human trafficking. Under the act, the department classifies countries into three tiers. • The worst, Tier 3, represents a group of countries that do not fully comply with the act's minimum standards and are making insignificant efforts to reach compliance: Bangladesh, Cuba, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gyana, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Venezuela, Northern Korea and Burma. • Tier 2 countries do not fully comply but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance: 42 countries, including Georgia, India, Laos, Mexico, the Philippines and Russia, Japan. • Tier 1 nations are in full compliance with the act's minimum standards.

16. Actions Against Slavery • Prevention. Information. Everyone have to know the minimum about how to not appear in slavery. Cooperation with the population of those countries where import of slaves is carried out. • Work of international and national policy. • Protection and rehabilitation of victims of slavery.

17. Slavery in Russia • In the form of immigration of a labour from the CIS countries. «To make an example in Russia there are 3.5-5 millions of illegal labourers. Over 30 % can be exposed to some form of compulsion in work. Our own analysis shows, that at least 50 thousand cases of forced labour is registered in Russia». Materials of the radio «Echo of Moscow» • Prostitution: • Inside of Russia. • Export of Russian women abroad. • Trade in people in the Chechen Republic. According to Aslambeck Askhanov (the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from Chechen Republic), the number of slaves in "rebellious republic" is equaled by 70 thousand person. • Precedents of army slavery (not authorized using of a labour the soldier)

18. References: • http://www.antislavery.org/ • www.inosmi.ru • www.inopress.ru • http://echo.msk.ru/ • http://www.memo.ru/prawo/l_21.htm • Матвеева Т.Д. Рабство в XXI веке //Международная жизнь, 2002.-№ 2. - С. 27-37.