Slavery and Human Trafficking

What is Slavery?

Slavery or Human Trafficking is where people treated as property to be bought & sold, and withhold human beings for the purpose of forced and unpaid labour. Slavery is undoubtedly considered as an unethical practice since no one has a right to crucify another fellow human being’s freedom for his/her own comfort. Transgressing one’s rights will lead to total human unhappiness, exploit and degrade human rights. It leaves a legacy of discrimination and perpetuates the abuse of children.

If we trot out affected parties of slavery, figures are bemusing. From Egyptians enslaving Libyans in 8000BC to modern world, now it’s spreading out to types like Bride-buying, Child labour, Debt bondage, Human trafficking, Impressment peonage, Penal labour, Sexual slavery and Wage slavery.

Current Dispersion

In the contemporary world, even though slavery is now outlawed in all countries, still the number of slaves’ remains as high as 12 million to 27 million. This contemporary slave industry is one of the largest criminal industries in the world today, which worth $32 billion annually. Slaves harvest cocoa in the Ivory Coast, make charcoal used to produce steel in Brazil, weave carpets in India are few appearances of modern world slavery.

Affected parties and Consequences

One of the bad repercussions that engraved in human history due to slavery is, it indisputably contributed most to the present situation of Africa. It permanently weakened the continent, led to its colonization by the Europeans in the nineteenth century and engendered the racism and contempt from which Africans still suffer. Also society was disrupted since slavery made Tribal wars, People felt insecure and little modernization took place in those localities. Apart from those above mention points, Cities were destroyed since people fled to cities to avoid being captured and it was dangerous to live in large groups. When it comes to modern world context, many a countries still have slavery in one form or another. As for few instances Child trafficking, bonded labor, Forced labor for producing basic commodities in agriculture such as cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, rice, fish, cocoa etc. and exploitation of migrants can be distinguished.

Legal background

Quite stupendously still, Slavery has been accepted, justified and admitted by some of the Cultures, Philosophies and Societies dispersed around the world.

Although Plethora of Laws and Regulations are being formulated against Human Trafficking and Slavery, [i.e.1815 Declaration Relative to the Universal Abolition of the Slave Trade, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)] still a considerable and substantial level of slavery is still being dispersed and propagated all around the world.

Poverty, Population growth, Barriers to the free movement of labour, corruption and crime, Ineffectiveness of the anti-slavery laws implemented by some countries can be depicted as the main reasons and obstructions that made Slavery persisted and spread out all over the world. Likewise human trafficking and slavery can be signified as one of the paramount ethical issues prevails in the world and this issue demands more vigilance in future.

Stakeholders

Law enforcements, Service Providers, Legal Representatives, Trafficked persons, Governments, Organizations like International Justice Mission (IJM), Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), My Refuge House, Partners Against Trafficking (PAT) are few stakeholders that can be sized up as the interested parties of this particular ethical issue.

P.S.

An Article wrote for a University assignment, Professional Issues.

Image: http://ronetheboxhouston.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/slaves_in_chains2.jpg

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