Ask any person on the streets these days what “slavery” is, and chances are they’ll mutter something or other about “Africa” or “colonies” or, if you’re on a more politically-aware street (such as Houghton, perhaps?) you may get a mention or two of the Transatlantic slave trade.
Ask them again if they think “slavery” still exists, and you might be surprised by how many people think slavery is a thing of the past. I wish that were the case, but I’m afraid I have to break the news to you: slavery is not dead.
Numbers are hard to pin down, but estimates suggest that there are between 12 million to 27 million people in the world trapped in situations of slavery, be it bonded labour, forced servitude, forced prostitution, child labour, worker abuse, or human trafficking.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that each year, 700,000 women, girls, men, and boys are being trafficked across borders away from their homes and families, and into debt bondage, prostitution, or other forms of forced labour. An estimated 300, 000 children are currently being exploited as child soldiers in areas of conflict across the world, and many of the kidnapped girls amongst these child soldiers are also forced into sexual slavery. The International Labour Organisation also estimates that there are at least 9.3 million trapped in situations of forced labour within the Asia- Pacific region alone, most of whom are in debt bondage.
Fifty years ago on 2nd December 1949, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. The second day of December each year has since been marked the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, a day for people to commemorate the triumph of humanity and the end of the Transatlantic slave trade as we remember it, but also a day to remind ourselves that our work is far from over, because slavery is just as much a reality today, and that something can be and needs to be done to stop it.
Many people assume that slavery disappeared when nations all over the world criminalized slavery, but the truth is, slavery has only gone underground and reinvented itself to make it seem a lot more justifiable. Most people have heard about child soldiers and sweatshops and human trafficking, but the idea that slavery still exists — and that there are more slaves today than ever before in history — remains a shocking one, mostly because it is hidden away from the eyes of those of us who don’t know where to find it.
Some reflexivity here, for the benefit of those who remain unconvinced about “human rights”. My own education in anthropology has taught me to question the universality of “human rights”, to wonder if a supranational organization’s decree of what humans are or deserve has taken into consideration the cultural specificities anthropologists are so passionate about, and if not, whether it is right that these definitions are applied across the globe in the name of “justice”.
But whilst the universality of human rights cannot and should not be assumed, surely, some things are indubitably more universal than others?
Surely, we cannot and should not.
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