Slavery

What is Slavery
12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide: forced to work -- through mental or physical threat; owned
or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse; dehumanised, treated as a
commodity or bought and sold as 'property'; physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her.

Our right to be protected against slavery and servitude is absolute. It can never be restricted. The law relating to forced
labour is also absolute. But it does not apply to work that you have to do as part of a prison sentence or a community
sentence. Nor does it apply to work the government requires you to do in a state of emergency.

Laws ?
The modern world accepts that slavery is a great evil and there are many international documents that denounce it and
make it illegal.

 History-to suppress
Between 1815 and 1957 around 300 international agreements were implemented, with varying degrees of success, to
suppress slavery. Many of these agreements lacked adequate institutions and procedures to ensure that they were
enforced.

 key documents
The first international document against slavery was the 1815 Declaration Relative to the Universal Abolition of the
Slave Trade. The Slavery Convention, 1926 “Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the
powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.”

UDHR
Article 4: Prohibition of slavery and forced labour: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. No one shall be required
to perform forced or compulsory labour. For the purpose of this Article the term "forced or compulsory labour" shall not
include: any work required to be done in the ordinary course of detention imposed according to the provisions of Article
5 of this Convention or during conditional release from such detention; any service of a military character or, in case of
conscientious objectors in countries where they are recognised, service exacted instead of compulsory military service;
any service exacted in case of an emergency or calamity threatening the life or well-being of the community; any work or
service which forms part of normal civic obligations.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Article 8, No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be prohibited. No one shall be
held in servitude. No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. Article 7 CCPRP protects all human
beings from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, thus outlawing some of the more
detestable practices of enslavement.

Article 12-ICCPR gives people the rights of liberty of movement and freedom to choose their residence, both of which
are incompatible with slavery. Article 16 ICCPR, "Everyone shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a person
before the law." Article 26- ICCPR all persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the
equal protection of the law."

The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions Similar to Slavery (1956)
Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those
of a person under his control as security for a debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied
towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined;

1
Serfdom, that is to say, the condition or status of a tenant who is by law, custom or agreement bound to live and labour
on land belonging to another person and to render some determinate service to such other person, whether for reward
or not, and is not free to change his status;

Any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years is delivered by either or both of
his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of
the child or young person or of his labour.

The same convention criminalised 'the act of conveying or attempting to convey slaves from one country to another' and
told governments to take all effective measures to prevent ships and aircraft under their flags from conveying slaves, and
to stop their ports and airports being used for such a purpose.

 Article 6- Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions Similar to
Slavery (1956)
The act of enslaving another person or of inducing another person to give himself or a person dependent upon him into
slavery, or of attempting these acts, or being accessory thereto, or being a party to a conspiracy to accomplish any such
acts, shall be a criminal offence. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court characterizes 'enslavement' as a crime
against humanity falling within the jurisdiction of the Court , and describes 'enslavement' as: the exercise of any or all of
the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of
trafficking in persons, in particular women and children.

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual
exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs

 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons

Article 3, paragraph (a) of the defines Trafficking in Persons the act (what is being done): recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, The means of being done are by threat, use of force, coercion, abduction,
fraud, deception, abuse of power, or a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to
achieve the consent of a person having control over another person.

The purpose of being done is to exploit. Exploitation include at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of human
beings and other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude
or the removal of organs.

Siliadin v France (2005)

A 15-year-old girl was brought to France from Togo by ‘Mrs D’, who paid for her journey but then confiscated her
passport. It was agreed that the girl would work for Mrs D until she had paid back her air fare, but after a few months she
was ‘lent’ to ‘Mr and Mrs B’, who forced her to work for 15 hours a day, seven days a week with no pay, no holidays, no
identity documents and without her immigration status being authorised. The girl wore second-hand clothes and did not
have her own room. The authorities intervened once they were alerted to the situation. However, at the time, slavery
and servitude were not specifically criminalised in France. The European Court of Human Rights held that the girl had
been held in servitude and that France had breached its positive obligations under the prohibition of slavery and forced
labour, because French law had not afforded the girl specific and effective protection.

Patience Asuquo
Patience was brought to the UK as a domestic worker and nanny. For two-and-a-half years she was abused physically and
mentally. She was never paid and her employer withheld her passport. Patience eventually managed to escape – only to
be confronted with an uninterested police force, refusing to take her allegations seriously.

2
Liberty forced officers to investigate and Patience’s employer was eventually prosecuted – although not for slavery or
forced servitude, as they still weren’t offences under English law. Thankfully that’s now changed, and there’s a new
slavery offence on the statute book.

Hadjiatou Mani (Niger)

Aged 12, her parents master sold her to a 63 year old man for £250. Her new master enslaved her as both a domestic
servant and a ‘wife’ – she was never paid for her work, constantly beaten and subjected to repeated rapes. Her master
released her when Niger passed a law banning slavery, he said as his slave she was also his wife and so could not leave.

Hadjiatou left and married a man she chose but the master took her to a local court which ruled that she had committed
bigamy and she was imprisoned for two months. In 2008, the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
court found Niger guilty of failing to protect it’s own citizens from slavery 

Scenarios in some countries

In northern Uganda, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) guerrillas have kidnapped 20,000 children over the past twenty
years and forced them into service as soldiers or sexual slaves for the army.

In Guinea-Bissau, children as young as five are trafficked out of the country to work in cotton fields in southern Senegal
or as beggars in the capital city. In Ghana, children five to fourteen are tricked with false promises of education and
future into dangerous, unpaid jobs in the fishing industry. In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for trafficked
women, especially women coming from the Philippines and Thailand. UNICEF estimates 60,000 child prostitutes in the
Philippines.

The US State Department estimates 600,000 to 820,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international
borders each year, half of whom are minors, including record numbers of women and girls fleeing from Iraq. In nearly all
countries, including Canada, the US and the UK, deportation or harassment are the usual governmental responses, with
no assistance services for the victims.

In the Dominican Republic, the operations of a trafficking ring led to the death by asphyxiation of 25 Haitian migrant
workers. In 2007, two civilians and two military officers received lenient prison sentences for their part in the operation.
In Somalia in 2007, more than 1,400 displaced Somalis and Ethiopian nationals died at sea in trafficking operations.

Malaysia: Practices
In 2014, The United States has downgraded Malaysia to a Tier 3 in its annual human trafficking report. This is the lowest
ranking and Malaysia is now in the same category as Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. In 2007, more than 1,600
children were reported missing in Malaysia. 86% were below 18 years old.

The Wall Street Journal exposing serious human rights and labor abuses in Malaysian grower Felda Global Venture’s
plantations, a coalition of civil society groups is calling on the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for an open
investigation into the abuses.

The brutalised body of R. Ganesh was flown back to Tamil Nadu state in India, one day after Malaysian workers observed
Labour Day. Three suspects – sauce factory owner T. Rajan, his wife M. Ganeswari, and their 20-year-old son Vijaar .
Young Rohingya women from Myanmar sold into marriage to Rohingya men already in Malaysia as the price of escaping
violence and poverty in their homeland.

Malaysia
 Prohibition against slavery and forced labour (Article 6)
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices similar to Slavery.
The Supplementary Convention provides for the abolishment of slavery practices. Malaysia ratified the Supplementary
Convention on the 18 November 1957.
3
  Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.

The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act came into force on 28 February 2008. This Act was then amended in 2010 in order to
strengthen the regulatory framework to deal more effectively with the issues of human trafficking and smuggling of
migrants in Malaysia. After the amendment was passed and the act came into force on 15 November 2010.

Even with the amendments made, in hopes of strengthening the legislation as well as its enforcement, Malaysia was
placed on Tier 2 in the U.S Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report for 2 consecutive years. The 2011 report
stated that the Malaysian Government has failed to comply fully with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum
standards to eliminate trafficking in this country.

 MAPO
The Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons (MAPO) was established under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 which
came into force on 28 Feb 2008. Following the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (Amendment) Act 2010, to also include the
smuggling of migrants, MAPO is now known as the Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of
Migrants. 

MAPO’s objective is to make Malaysia internationally accredited as being free of illegal activities in connection with
human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. Hence, MAPO’s main function is to prevent and eradicate human trafficking
and migrant smuggling crimes through comprehensive enforcement of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (Amendment) Act
2010

 CAMSA

CAMSA (Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia) is working very closely with relevant authorities to combat
human trafficking from every possible aspect. As one of the NGO members in Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons and
Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (MAPO), CAMSA was also invited by the Prosecution Department of the Attorney-General’s
Chambers to be part of the consultation group in assessing the current law and making suggestions for amendments.

Flaws in our laws?

Under the current law, once a victim is identified, they will be put under the Protection Order and then placed in a
gazetted shelter managed by the Government. Though the intention of placing them there is one of protection and care,
victims often feel suffocated and isolated, as though they are being punished for something they did wrong. In fact,
many believe that they are being detained because they broke the law. This inflicts further trauma on many victims.

Being kept in Government-institutionalised shelters, the victims’ freedom of movement is restricted. They are unable to
earn a livelihood and have no access to legal advice or representation.

A victim of human trafficking could have many civil claims against traffickers – including unpaid wages (basic, overtime
and holiday leave etc), termination benefits, false imprisonment, assault (physical and/or sexual), aggravated and
exemplary damages, interest thereon, declaratory and injunctive relief, unjust enrichment, medical costs, cost of
psychological treatment and therapy, legal and other costs.

The law also does not provide any alternatives for victims who may face harm upon returning to their home country.
Most, if not all, the victims will be repatriated after providing evidence under oath.

Recommendations:

The law should not only be prosecution-centric but must also consider the rights and needs of victims. One of our
proposals is to widen the scope of shelters to be run and managed by NGOs. This could provide greater flexibility in
4
which care and protection is not only given physically but victims are also empowered, and their rights are protected.
Victims should be given access to legal representation so that they can be aware of their rights, and to be able to make
informed decisions about their case.

Immunity should be given to them, simply because they are victims of human trafficking and not only if they cooperate
with the authorities. We must understand that some victims are not willing to cooperate or disclose any information for
fear of their (or their family back home’s) lives. Like drugs and arms trafficking, human trafficking is a market-driven
criminal industry that is based on the principles of supply and demand. Many factors make children and adults
vulnerable to human trafficking.

Human trafficking does not exist only because many people who are vulnerable to exploitation. This is the Truth, that
human trafficking is fueled by a demand for cheap labor or services, or for commercial sex acts. Human traffickers are
those who victimize others in their desire to profit from the existing demand.   To ultimately solve the problem of human
trafficking, it is essential to address these demand-driven factors, as well as to alter the overall market incentives of high-
profit and low-risk that traffickers currently exploit. It is for money and power, huge money and more power. It is the
mode of the imperialist world.

Issue of Modern-Day Slavery

The face of modern-day slavery takes many forms: sex trafficking (including child sex trafficking), forced labor, bonded
labor, domestic servitude, forced child labor, forced marriage, child soldiers and the exploitation of migrant workers.
Some form of slavery occurs in every country in the world and at shockingly high rates. The non-profit  anti-
slavery estimates that 21 million people are in forced labor, which they define as “the severe exploitation of people for
personal gain. Victims are deceived or coerced into a situation they cannot leave.”

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) gathered data from 155 countries to shed light on the issue. It
covers patterns and steps taken to combat trafficking, as well as reporting on victims and prosecutions. Executive
Director Antonio Maria Costa warns that the situation is difficult because so many governments are in denial that it
happens, and do not keep records or assist in prosecutions.

Worldwide, the efforts of small organizations working on shoestring budgets pale in comparison to the efforts of those
perpetrating crimes estimated to generate 150 billion a year. There is too much money made and prosecutions are too
few to deter would-be traffickers. Thailand is a good example: despite the fact that many small groups work tirelessly at
rescue, rehabilitation and prevention as well as prosecution, the UNODC and the Thailand Institute of Justice released
a report in August stating that “the sex industry in Thailand has continued to grow.”

One of the biggest deterrents to human trafficking is education and greater economic equality. That is a long road and
one many are fighting to make happen. Meanwhile, many countries are banding together to address the issue of human
trafficking and to create a systematic global response to raise the global awareness level about the human atrocity of
modern-day slavery. This was made clear at the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons in
September where UN General António Guterres urged the world to make this a priority for international cooperation.
This urgency began back in 2010 and continues today.

Susan Coppedge, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, wrote in her 2017 letter of
address, that the theme is “increasing criminal accountability of human traffickers, and addressing challenges in
prosecution – an essential component of the 3P paradigm of prosecution, protection, and prevention.” She went on to
state that “a victim-centered and trauma-informed approach requires, first and foremost, that the criminal justice
system not penalize victims of human trafficking when they are forced to commit crimes as a direct result of their
exploitation.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson noted that human trafficking “splinters families, distorts global markets, undermines the
rule of law, and spurs other transnational criminal activity. It threatens public safety and national security. But worst of
5
all, the crime robs human beings of their freedom and their dignity. That’s why we must pursue an end to the scourge of
human trafficking.”

Many people think this issue occurs mainly in underdeveloped nations – unfortunately, that is wrong. In 2016 in the U.S.,
there were 8,000 cases opened of people who reached out to the ToBeFree hotline, a 35% increase over the year
before.  Seattle-based organization Stolen Youth estimates there are over 500 trafficked kids on Seattle streets alone,
and the median age of these children is just 13 years old.

Improvements are happening in the area of recognition and rescue, and high-level protocols have been drafted, signed
and in some cases implemented. The United Nations Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons’ most recent report shows
that in the past few years the number of Member States seriously implementing the Protocol has more than doubled.
We need all countries to sign and implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking In Persons,
Especially Women and Children. The following countries still have not signed: Bhutan, Brunei, Comoros, Republic of
Congo, Fiji, Iran, Japan, Korea (DPRK), Marshall Islands, Nepal, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,
Somalia, South Sudan, Tonga, Uganda, Yemen, Bangladesh.

We have come a long way from totally ignoring the problem to addressing it at all levels; from the smallest locally-
organized groups to the UN, but we have so far to go. It’s troubling to think there are people in the world who could
support slavery of any kind, but they are out there. Do what you can to support the thousands of organizations, small
and large, fighting this scourge on the planet.  If you wish to donate to NGOs working in Thailand, India and Nepal which
Crooked Trails partners with, click here or contact us.

Compare and contrast the 2 of Slavery Convention in 1926 and 1956

The elaboration of the travaux préparatoires of the slavery conventions: the Slavery Convention signed at Geneva,
September 25, 1926 and the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and
Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery provides a snapshot of two very different worlds. The first, shows a
‘gentlemen’s club’ atmosphere of the early years of the League of Nations; the second, a picture of an international
system in flux, the Cold War persists, but more importantly the decolonisation process is opening multilateral diplomacy
of the United Nations to new members whose ideas and perspectives are different to those of the founding members of
the club of nations.

The Slavery Convention of 1926 provided a definition of contemporary slavery, which established a basis by means of
which states could measure slavery within their borders. The definition asserted that slavery consists of a situation in
which an individual is under the complete control of another, as if this individual was the property of the other. In
conjunction with a basic definition of contemporary slavery, the main concern of the 1926 Convention was to monitor
efforts towards its prohibition. Despite the definition and outline provided by the 1926 Commission, a governing body
responsible for the evaluation and monitoring of human rights violations in the form of contemporary slavery did not
exist. Additionally, there was an absence of a universal set of laws and protocols that would abolish contemporary forms
of slavery on an international level. In 1930, an Advisory Commission was created to address some of these failings, but
was limited in its effect due to confidentiality agreements with states that dictated what could and could not be publicly
revealed.

The overriding ethos of the negotiations of the 1926 Slavery Convention is a continuation of the ‘civilising mission’ of the
nineteenth century: that the scourge which is being addressed does not transpire at home, but is primarily to be dealt
with abroad either in the colonies or with non-member States of the League of Nations. Where overseas territories
were concerned a ‘territorial clause’ – later to be termed a ‘colonial clause’ – was introduced at Article 9 of the
Convention, thus allowing metropolitan States to determine which of their territories would be bound by the obligations
of the 1926 Convention or, conversely, which territories might be exempt from obligations flowing from the Slavery
Convention. Hardly surprising then in this context of seeking to legislate aboard was that the provisions on forced
labour were the most discussed in the negotiation process, as it was recognised that all States “civilised or uncivilised”
6
utilised forced labour. As Professor Suzanne Miers notes, in British India and Burma, for instance, force labour for public
works was “considered essential”. Thus, those negotiating the 1926 Convention ensured that the forced labour
provisions “were only as strong as their interests allowed”.

The negotiations of the 1956 Supplementary Convention were not as harmonious. As issues of slavery and servitude
were alive and well in States which were involved in the negotiation process, agreement was always going to be difficult.
It was clear that no ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ was going to permeate the process; especially as tensions between
Western colonial States and newly independent States (supported by the Socialist block) were growing. The Bandung
Conference having transpired in April 1955, a rather frosty reception awaited the British and French delegations during
the drafting process of 1956, as tensions were heightened by the growing Suez Crisis (the Suez Canal Company having
been nationalised in July 1956; with British, French and Israeli forces entering Egypt in October 1956) and anti-colonial
fervent growing in Algeria.

Additional conventions followed the 1953 Slavery Convention. These conventions led to worldwide efforts to enforce
the eradication of all forms of slavery. Established in Geneva in 1956, the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery expanded the definition of contemporary
slavery to include debt bondage, serfdom, the selling of women by their families for marriage, certain forms of abuse of
women, and the buying and selling of children for labor or prostitution.

One of the cases happened in Brazil. In Brazil the vast majority of workers in forced labour are in debt bondage. The
main sectors employing forced labour are ranching, deforestation, agriculture, logging and charcoal. Workers are given
an advance in their home towns and persuaded to come and work in the Amazon during the appropriate season. Once
they arrive at the farms they are told that they will have to pay for their transport, food and lodging, as well as pay back
any advance they have been given. They are charged a very high rate of interest and find that their salaries rarely cover
their costs. In some cases they become more and more indebted as they have to buy everything they need at inflated
prices from the estate shop.

In Romania, a trafficker, posing as a friend, offered a 23-year-old Romanian woman a lucrative job contingent on her
moving to Germany and marrying an Indian man. With the hope of a better life and opportunities abroad, the woman
agreed, moved across Europe, and married the man. Once in Germany, however, she learned that the job was no longer
available. With no means to support herself, she turned to her “friend” for help but over time became dependent on
him for money, eventually accumulating debt she could not afford to repay. The trafficker coerced her into sex
trafficking through the use of debt bondage. The woman is now receiving care and services from an NGO in Romania.

Despite the fact that the 1926 and 1956 Conventions were negotiated in two very different contexts, the processes of
negotiation of each of the instruments followed similar patterns. Both the Slavery Convention and the Supplementary
Convention emerge from provisions first proposed by the United Kingdom which, during the first half of the twentieth
century, maintained the lead role it had played during the totality of nineteenth century were the abolition of slavery
and the slave trade were concerned. These British draft conventions were then considered and redrafted by
representatives both at the League of Nations and with regard to the later instrument at the United Nations. Finally,
these drafts were then considered and negotiated by diplomats holding Full Powers, allowing for the emergence of the
slavery conventions.