Modern slavery

Millions of men, women and children around the world today are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their 'employers'.

Slavery exists today, despite the fact that it is banned in most of the countries where it is practised. It is also 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.

Women from Eastern Europe are bonded into prostitution, children are trafficked between West African countries and men are forced to work as slaves on Brazilian agricultural estates. Contemporary slavery takes various forms and affects people of all ages, sex and race.

What types of slavery exist today?
Bonded labour affects millions of 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. It is different from an arranged marriage, in whichboth parties consent to the assistance of their parents or a third party in identifying a spouse.

Forced labour in which people are employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence (including death), or other extreme hardship to themselves, or to members' of their families.

Slavery by descent refers to people either born into a slave class or who are from a 'group' that society view as suited to being used as slaves.

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 conditions of slavery. According to the International Labour Organisation, the worst forms of child labour affect an estimated 126 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.

The main legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is that it forms the root of modern racism. It epitomises an exploitative form of globalisation, which surfaces today in unfair international trade laws and continues to have xenophobic consequences in the present day.

Breaking the chains

Modern slavery