Nowadays Slavery

"The number of people held in slavery today is 27 million” (Malbert, 2008)

Article 4 of European Convention (September 1953) states: No one shall be held in slavery and servitude and no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. It makes exceptions for military work; work imposed because of a detention, giving service in case of emergency and part of the civic obligations.

The statement ‘slavery has all about disappeared’ is completely inaccurate and false.  Slavery has developed adapting to the society, as a result of this, it is rarely seen slave trade as it happened in the 17^th century. Nevertheless, still millions of people who were trade as slaves and controlled by others, which is the key factor to commit slavery.

According to the US Government there are eight actions which are considered modern slavery: Forced Labour, Sex Trafficking, Bonded Labour and Debt Bondage among Migrant Labourers, Involuntary Domestic Servitude, Forced Child Labour, Child Soldiers and Child Sex Trafficking.    

Forced Labour is considered any work which exploits its workers involving often coercion, for example exceeding of working hours, salaries lower than the minimum, violence etc.

Sex Trafficking, is when an adult is forced to work as a prostitute. It is often than Latin American and African women are brought to Europe to work in prostitution thinking that they are going to be involved in domestic

Bonded Labour and Debt Bondage among Migrant Workers are fairly similar, both use debt or bond as a way of coercion, which is the essential to be considered Forced Labour.

Involuntary Domestic Labour consists on forced labour related to domestic chores. This slavery is more vulnerable to women, and teenagers.

Forced Child Labour, is the same as compulsory work but involves children. A great example of Child Labour is Restavek. Around 300,000 children between 4 and 18 are forced to practice Restavek.(house cleaning, preparing meals, ironing clothes etc., in Haiti)

Child Soldiers is a tactic to use children in the army forcing them to be soldiers. Many regions, which are now in conflict, mostly in Africa and Asia make the children participate in the combat. Child Sex Trafficking is really common type of modern slavery.  Women, under 18, are forced to leave their home and work as prostitutes without receiving any benefit from their work.

To summarize, Article 4 ECHR has served in terms of abolishing legal slavery; but still millions of people are held in slavery today, the highest rate ever. As a result, it is undoubtedly necessary to question about Article 4 real effectiveness. 

Source:

 ‘Free the Slaves’ <https://www.freetheslaves.net/SSLPage.aspx>

Bales K. Malbert R & Sealy M, Documenting Disposable People Contemporary Global

‘U.S Department of State Diplomacy <http://www.state.gov/j/tip/what/index.htm>

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