GSI-2016-Full-Report

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Connecting Slavery and Environmental Destruction KEVIN BALES Professor of Contemporary Slavery at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull, UK Slavery never happens in isolation. For people to be enslaved, several conditions must be in place. One of the most powerful of these is when the rule of law fails. A country may be poor, it may be struggling with climate change or a damaged economy, but if the rule of law holds, then even the most vulnerable are protected from slavery. When armed conflict breaks out, the rule of law is one of the first casualties. In the chaos of conflict and violence, a perfect storm of lawlessness, slavery, and environmental destruction can occur—driving the vulnerable into slavebased work that feeds into global supply chains and the things we buy and use in our daily lives. In the past twenty years, this perfect storm has hit the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A war that erupted in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide spread across the region, bringing collapse to the Congo’s ruling dictatorship, invasion by surrounding nations, and a sharp rise in slavery and sexual violence. The armed groups that grabbed parts of the eastern provinces were not there for political or religious reasons, but to steal and sell valuable minerals and other natural resources. Lacking mining technology, but heavily armed, these criminal groups enslaved thousands of local people. These slaves were forced to cut protected virgin forests, level mountains, spoil streams and rivers with great openstrip mines, and massacre rare and endangered species like gorillas. The minerals these slaves dug, processed and then carried on their backs to smuggle them out of the country flowed into our lives. For these slave-based, environmentally-destructive minerals are essential to making cell phones, computers, and the thousands of other electronic devices that surround us every day. The human cost of this conflict was extremely high [6] —one in five adults were enslaved, nearly half of all women and a quarter of all men were raped. In the aftermath of the war, a quarter of the population reported actively thinking about killing themselves, and one person in six had attempted suicide; no-one knows how many others succeeded. The impact on the natural world was also devastating. The 3000-square-mile Virunga National Park is the oldest in Africa and home to one third of the world’s population of rare mountain gorillas, as well as elephants, hippopotami, buffalo, and antelope. The same armed gangs smashing and grabbing the mineral resources see such protected forest reserves as ripe for the taking and are willing to expend any number of slaves to do so. Slaughter on an industrial scale, using machine guns and grenades has reduced the hippo population by 98 percent and enslaved local people who are forced to carry the carcasses to meat markets in the city. Gorillas are also killed to sell as meat, or just to get out of the way as the soldiers clear-cut the primeval forest to burn into charcoal—also for sale in the city or across the border in Rwanda. In this context of conflict, a vicious cycle begins: the rule of law disappears and slavery, brutality, and environmental destruction feed into each other. The weapons driving this cycle might be paid for by the riches torn from the forests, or purchased with profits from the products we all buy. Refugees fleeing devastated environments that can no longer support them are caught up and enslaved, then forced to carry out even more destruction. It is the sheer size of this cycle that makes large-scale research, such as the Global Slavery Index, so important. This deadly, triangular trade stretches far beyond the Congo, across the world to other threatened villages and forests, and all the way to the rich countries of Europe and North America. It is a trade cycle based on armed conflict that grinds up the natural world and crushes human beings to churn out commodities like minerals for electronics, shrimp and fish, gold, cotton and clothing, iron and steel. When the focus and analysis of this slave-based trade cycle becomes global surprising facts emerge: [7] • Recent environmental treaties and regulations made vast forests around the equator off-limits to commercial logging—but created a market vacuum quickly filled by criminal slaveholders. • A conservative estimate is that just under half of all illegal deforestation in the world is slave-based. • If that is the case, then criminal slaveholders are responsible for 2.54 billion tons of CO 2 entering the atmosphere each year. Put another way, slaves are being forced to produce more greenhouse gases than any country in the world except China and the United States (the two largest polluters). Added to that is the widespread mercury poisoning from slave-based gold mines on three continents, and the carcinogenic air pollution from tens of thousands of slaveusing brick kilns. Slavery is a global problem, which is inextricably tied to other global problems like conflict and climate change, as well as feeding the global supply chains that tie us all together. But it is also true that understanding slavery at a global level opens the door to solutions. For example, expanding efforts to end slavery could slow or stop the growth of greenhouse gases driving climate change. Going further, employing freed slaves to re-plant forests they have been forced to destroy, work already underway on a small scale, would sweep CO 2 from the air and possibly reverse climate change. While the right approach to climate change is sometimes controversial, slavery is not. There can be no special pleading for slave-based industries, growing from conflict, and feeding our supply chains. Closing down slave-based logging, brick-making, mining, or charcoal production will not hurt our lifestyles or the global economy. What it will do is get people out of slavery and slow global warming and climate change—a classic winwin situation. Making these global connections requires a global focus. 16 | GLOBAL SLAVERY INDEX <strong>2016</strong>
Commentary cont. Child labour is not a new issue in Bangladesh, as children remain one of the most vulnerable groups to trafficking, hunger, illiteracy, displacement, exploitation, physical and mental abuse. Many children engage in various hazardous and exploitative occupations in mining and manufacturing factories. Photo credit, GMB Akash GLOBAL SLAVERY INDEX <strong>2016</strong> | 17
Page 1 and 2: 2016 We call on governments of the
Page 4 and 5: FOREWORD By Andrew Forrest - A Pers
Page 6 and 7: HIGHLIGHTS This is the third editio
Page 8 and 9: CONTENTS
Page 10 and 11: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Global Slaver
Page 12 and 13: 10 | GLOBAL SLAVERY INDEX 2016
Page 14 and 15: ABOUT THE INDEX TERMINOLOGY Differe
Page 16 and 17: COMMENTARY Measuring Modern Slavery
Page 20 and 21: Distress Migration and Modern Slave
Page 22 and 23: GLOBAL FINDINGS
Page 24: GLOBAL PREVALENCE SCALE Modern slav
Page 27 and 28: Global Findings cont. However, it i
Page 29 and 30: Rank Country Estimated percent of p
Page 35 and 36: Global Findings cont. United Arab E
Page 37 and 38: Country Civil & political protectio
Page 39 and 40: Country Civil & political protectio
Page 41 and 42: GLOBAL SLAVERY INDEX 2016 | 39
Page 43 and 44: Global Findings cont. While some co
Page 45 and 46: RATING DESCRIPTION Rating Numerical
Page 47 and 48: Response rating Country Survivors s
Page 49 and 50: Response rating Country Survivors s
Page 51 and 52: Mohini, a trafficked bride in Harya
Page 53 and 54: Asia Pacific cont. PREVALENCE Rank
Page 55 and 56: Asia Pacific cont. IOM VICTIM SUPPO
Page 57 and 58: Asia Pacific cont. Natural disaster
Page 59 and 60: Asia Pacific cont. Beggar woman wit
Page 61 and 62: Europe cont. PREVALENCE Rank Countr
Page 63 and 64: Asia Europe Pacific cont. IOM VICTI
Page 65 and 66: Europe cont. In 2015-2016, the Euro
Page 67 and 68: Asia Europe Pacific cont. The Nethe
Page 69 and 70:
Russia and Eurasia cont. PREVALENCE
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Russia and Asia Eurasia Pacific con
Page 73 and 74:
Russia and Eurasia cont. Child carr
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Sub-Saharan Africa cont. PREVALENCE
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Sub-Saharan Asia Pacific Africa con
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Sub-Saharan Africa cont. Modern sla
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Sub-Saharan Africa cont. Almost 40
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MENA cont. PREVALENCE Rank Country
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Asia Pacific MENA cont. IOM VICTIM
Page 87 and 88:
MENA cont. While effective public a
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Asia Pacific cont. GLOBAL SLAVERY I
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The Americas cont. PREVALENCE Rank
Page 93 and 94:
The Americas cont. IOM VICTIM SUPPO
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The Americas cont. Caribbean are tr
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Asia Pacific cont. In plain sight:
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A young Cambodian migrant worker lo
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Cambodia cont. PREVALENCE Cambodia
Page 103 and 104:
Cambodia cont. from other Asian nat
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Cambodia cont. Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Dominican Republic cont. PREVALENCE
Page 109 and 110:
Dominican Republic cont. There are
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India cont. PREVALENCE India is und
Page 113 and 114:
India cont. VULNERABILITY Country C
Page 115 and 116:
India cont. The importance of succe
Page 117 and 118:
Asia India Pacific cont. cont. STAT
Page 119 and 120:
Asia India Pacific cont. cont. STAT
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Iraq cont. PREVALENCE The 2016 Glob
Page 123 and 124:
Iraq cont. GOVERNMENT RESPONSE At p
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Mauritania cont. PREVALENCE The 201
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Mauritania cont. In March 2016, Mau
Page 129 and 130:
Mexico cont. PREVALENCE The 2016 Gl
Page 131 and 132:
Mexico cont. these developments mus
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Poland cont. PREVALENCE The 2016 Gl
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Poland cont. The government is begi
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Qatar cont. PREVALENCE The 2016 Glo
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Qatar cont. GOVERNMENT RESPONSE In
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Russia cont. PREVALENCE The 2016 Gl
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Russia cont. agents' if they engage
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South Africa cont. PREVALENCE The 2
Page 147 and 148:
South Africa cont. a situation exac
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Thailand cont. PREVALENCE The 2016
Page 151 and 152:
Thailand cont. the required adminis
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Thailand cont. Thai ‘trashfish’
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United Kingdom cont. PREVALENCE The
Page 157 and 158:
United Kingdom cont. In December 20
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Mewat, India - March 14, 2014: Rubi
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APPENDIX 2 - Summary of Methodology
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Summary of Methodology cont. PART B
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Summary of Methodology cont. Countr
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Summary of Methodology cont. Table
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Summary of Methodology cont. Reflec
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Summary of Methodology cont. Rating
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Summary of Methodology cont. Outcom
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Summary of Methodology cont. MILEST
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Children begging and selling flower
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Woman works at a hand rolled cigare
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ENDNOTES - Regional Studies Asia Pa
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Regional cont. 75 United Nations P
Page 185 and 186:
Russia and Eurasia 1 The Condition
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Regional cont. 44 Child Marriage,
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Regional cont. 28 Samantha McCorma
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Regional cont. 53 Office to Monito
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ENDNOTES - Selected Country Studies
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Country cont. 49 Celso Perez, 'The
Page 197 and 198:
Country cont. 77 Kamal Saksena, 'C
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Country cont. 31 Personal communic
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Country cont. 40 'UN Expert Urges
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Country cont. 17 Unit Against Traf
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Country cont. 15 ITUC Special Repo
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Country cont. 33 "World Report 201
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Country cont. 32 Transnational Org
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ENDNOTES - Appendices 20 Percentag
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"Whenever I go back to my village I
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A talibe (boy studying in a Qur’a
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