3071-The political economy of new slavery

Foreword
Many consider that slavery is a matter for the past, outlawed in Britain
and elsewhere in the nineteenth century, and prohibited by the first
international human rights instruments in the twentieth century. The
image of the transatlantic slave trade and plantations still holds strong.
Yet currently millions are held worldwide in contemporary forms of
slavery. Among children, the International Labour Organization estimates
8.4 million are in slavery, approximately one child out of every
175 in the world.
What all these people have in common is that they are vulnerable
and suffer the worst forms of exploitation. Yet what is also clear is that
slavery affects all types of people, in all areas of the world, held in many
different forms of slavery. These may vary, for example, from women
trafficked into domestic servitude in the UK, to children working on
cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast, to bonded labourers in South Asia.
As the faces of contemporary slavery are varied, so are the causes and
potential solutions. Thus we need not only to look at the implementation
of international law, but also economic factors, globalization and
international trade, and countries’ migration policies. Perhaps more
so in slavery than any other area, the interface of basic human rights
standards and economic policies is most apparent.
It is also clear that contemporary slavery is no respecter of traditional
boundaries – the increased global crime of trafficking in people affects
most countries, from the most developed such as the UK or USA through
the former Eastern bloc countries to the traditionally viewed ‘under
developed’ countries of the South. While the underlying driver of this
may be poverty, other social and economic factors such as the desire to
migrate are important. These diverse situations call for a more sophisticated
response than the standard development agenda.
Anti-Slavery International has been working since 1839 to eliminate
all forms of slavery and the slave trade. In this time we have learnt that,
complex and immense though the problem is, solutions are possible that
bring about real, sustainable changes in the lives of people. Increasingly
both individuals and governments are becoming more aware of the
problem, and are working for solutions. But much still remains to be
done. Awareness of issues surrounding slavery needs to be increased;
individuals can have a role in campaigning, pressurizing governments
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