modern slavery essay

modern slavery essay

The Fight Against Modern Slavery

1. Introduction

This essay will be analyzing the validity of the statement “In today’s world, as in past times, slaves are those who are vulnerable; the weak, the poor, the uneducated and those without choices” and the existence of modern slavery in the 21st century for such people. This topic evokes much emotion and is rich in contemporary relevance. The fight against global poverty and the promotion of basic human rights cannot be seen to be more evidenced than striving to eradicate modern-day slavery. This essay will be looking at the issue from a human rights-based approach. In particular, it will highlight where, why, and how people fall victim to modern slavery and the methods in which people are enslaved. The essay will also be assessing the effectiveness of efforts to stop modern slavery and provide solutions to further the progress that has already been made in the fight against modern slavery.

What is slavery? According to Brown (2008) and Morgan Freeman, “Slavery is a thriving system of exploitation… in which billions of people are forced to live as second class citizens, unable to leave the most menial and back-breaking jobs with little or no pay.” There are an estimated 27 million slaves this present day – more than any other time in history, with 56% in South Asia. Slavery affects the most vulnerable, the weak and poor (Bales, 2004), with 6 out of 10 slaves being female.

2. Understanding Modern Slavery

The first phase of the cultural approach to modern slavery involves selective perception. It is a process used to draw attention to certain aspects of an experience or situation and away from others. By utilizing this tool in former and current modern slaves, it is hoped that through some of the traumatic and psychological conditions relating to slavery and/or migration, a dissuasion of selective perception can be broken in certain aspects. For instance, slaves escaping from a situation of impoverishment to traffickers of bonded labor or the Christians and the Muslim Sudanese who decided to move for ‘safety and a better life for the family’ abroad, the ‘selective perception’ was hoped to bring a change from the unfavorable conditions of the life they are moving from to those providing a better future. This has been somewhat effective in the case of athletes from African nations choosing to exile themselves from oppressive homelands in pursuit of an international sports career. These athletes are hoping that the selective perception for themselves and their dependents will be a life that differs from their current situation.

Hardiman (2004: p3) notes that the fight against modern slavery has the characteristic of a ‘culture of memory’ and as such, much of the solutions implemented today will require innovative thinking. It is for these reasons that a two-phase model will be proposed, which is designed specifically to work within these cultural constraints to increase awareness and understanding of contemporary forms of slavery. This model is aimed at modern slaves and their situations, as well as the culture in the areas of enslavement.

3. The Global Impact

Much of the socio-economic phenomena that render people vulnerable to enslavement are also the root causes of practices amounting to slavery. Therefore, poverty reduction and development work are key to the eradication of modern slavery. It has been listed as a contributing factor to slavery in a great number of countries, and indeed the freeing of slaves, and preventing others from becoming enslaved is a form of ‘upstream’ poverty alleviation. While it is vital to specifically target initiatives at the most vulnerable people, victims of slavery, and those in marginal forms of forced labor, all efforts to combat poverty and exclusion can be seen as part of the fight against modern slavery. This includes activities as varied as economic empowerment for women, improving access to healthcare and education, and the prevention of child marriage and child labor.

The fight against modern slavery is global and multi-faceted. A substantial amount of modern slavery is exposed through moments of ‘rescue’ or liberation, and the following steps of protection and prevention are critical to global anti-slavery efforts. Some dedicated activists involved in modern-day abolitionism also work to see the emancipation of bonded laborers in cases where entire communities are enslaved to local and global elites through a system of barter and debt. Sustained pressure on supply chains where products are made with slave labor can change the conditions for workers, and forced labor is combatted when the systems of corruption that sustain it are dismantled. Global efforts to combat human trafficking are damaging to the slavery industry and can prevent vulnerable individuals from being enslaved.

4. Solutions and Interventions

Greater intervention by foreign nations in the internal affairs of countries involved in slavery is also a necessary action to speed the demise of slavery. The interference in the internal matters of foreign countries is not a popular action with many politicians, but sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice ultimate national interests for the sake of humanity.

A similar plan has been used on the Indian subcontinent; since the leading cause of the debt bondage system is illegal lending at exorbitant rates, the freeing of debt slaves and the prevention of further entry into debt bondage is done by providing loans at low interest rates to poor families.

In Brazil, the government has begun a program to liberate slaves on fazendas and has gone a step further to require that plantation owners must pay for the travel expenses of the freed individual back to his home state and the owner must pay the individual three months of work in order for a legal liberation to occur. This is a great step for it makes the owner pay a substantial sum to free the individual, but the most important part is that it prevents the supplying of more slaves, for the owner must now give the job to free servant who certainly will not take the arduous job of a slave on a possibly illegal contract.

One cannot eradicate the system of slavery without providing alternative occupations for the ones who are found therein. Since many countries in which slavery is a part of the economy, the displacement of slaves would lead to the destitution and starvation of the individuals if they were not put into a new occupation.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, the fight against slavery is not a cause to be done by heroes. As has been shown through history, it is just a cause of ordinary men. Slavery is an affront to all humanity, and to see it end, it will take much effort from all of us, but it can be done. It must be done.

Global consumer power has added a new tool for social ethics: not consuming. Consumers in the West can be the saviors of bonded laborers in other countries by taking on consciousness about the conditions of workers in the uniforms of many Third World sweatshops and helping to enforce the right of the worker to a dignity-filled life. With proper coordination, scholars believe that a targeted 10% reduction in consumer purchases of goods produced with slave labor or a reduction of 10% in investment in countries utilizing slave labor would be more than enough to force the elimination of a system that is quite costly and no longer profitable for slave masters. With the bond of many like-minded NGOs, there is much that well-informed consumers could do.

Awareness needs to be raised through the media. The public needs to place pressure upon the government, who can only act within the constraints of public opinion. There is not a problem that cannot be solved when the world puts their mind to it. And thus, we should strive for the elimination of a problem that should have been solved long ago. Modern society is structured and concerned with finance, and the heart of global action lies in this area. To follow the examples and non-violent success of the Abolitionist movements in England and the USA, movements need to be developed with economic strategies.

Governments, businesses, and consumers, working closely together, are the only ones who can end contemporary slavery in our world. The chains of slavery are not just made of steel, but of finance and trade. Slavery still exists, and according to Mokhiber, “goes where the money is, into the global economy.” It is a global problem that needs to be addressed by all nations. We, children and parents, teenagers and the elderly, cannot stand by and watch this atrocity occur. For as long as a sole child is bought or sold in the slave market, our human race cannot progress.