This is the first of a series of four articles examining recent trends of modern slavery, the political risks associated with this phenomenon, and the tools available for companies to prevent and address it.

Definition

The International Labour Organization (ILO) labels modern slavery as “situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or cannot leave because of threats, violence, deception, abuse of power, or other forms of coercion”. This encompasses the various forms of forced labour (including child labour, sex trafficking, and involuntary domestic servitude) on the one hand, and forced marriage on the other hand. As the fastest-growing international crime after the arms trade, modern slavery is estimated to be worth 150 billion dollars. According to the ILO, the number of victims escalated from 40 million in 2016 to 50 million in 2021 (approximately 28 million trapped in forced labour, and 22 million in forced marriage).

The fight against modern slavery falls within the UN SDG Target 8.7: “Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms”. It is encompassed in the “Social” factors of the ESG framework, alongside other human rights standards.

History of the Phenomenon

Slavery has been attested for millenia in civilisations throughout the world, including Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, Ancient Egypt and Greece, the Roman Empire, the Islamic Empires, as well as the Indian and Chinese Empires. Endogenous slave trade networks were also present in some parts of Subsaharan Africa, parallel (and maybe anterior) to those put in place by the Arabs.

The most commonly referred to historical instance of slavery is the transatlantic slave trade, which propelled economic growth in Western Europe and North America - while purposely sabotaging the future of the African continent by plundering its people and resources. This was a case of chattel slavery, whereby one could hold legal ownership over another. Throughout world history, what we identify as chattel slavery has been embedded in various legal settings, but was always somehow officially condoned. 

Over the course of the last two centuries, laws enabling chattel slavery have been abolished in all countries, and the principle was condemned in the League of Nations’ 1926 Slavery Convention. Article 4 of the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”. Due to this, slavery tends to be perceived as a thing of the past. However:

• Although there are no more laws allowing chattel slavery, 49% of the world’s countries have yet to create criminal laws that explicitly forbid it;

• In many countries, other forms of slavery (such as child labour or forced marriage) remain condoned by law;

• Even in places where all forms of slavery are illegal, the phenomenon still exists, albeit in the realm of illegality - which makes it harder to locate, quantify, and dismantle. 

In addition to legal system failures, we can identify structural factors explaining why slavery endures:

• Global capitalism (at least in its current form) incites multinational corporations to relocate part of their supply chains to lower their production costs, which puts them at risk of spurring modern slavery practices. Indeed, suspiciously cheap labour is often forced. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that historians have highlighted the role of the transatlantic slave trade in the development of Western capitalism. While some interpret structural exploitation as an inherent feature of capitalism (whereby the corollary of profit is value stolen from workers), others believe the system can be reformed to better integrate human rights;

• Poverty (part of which is a product of capitalism) restricts freedom of movement and employment alternatives, making people more vulnerable to falling into traps (e.g., debt bondage) that will result in their enslavement;

• Ethnic, religious, and cultural hierarchies within societies have historically been used to justify the enslavement of the lower classes, and continue to do so today. 

Recognition and Awareness

The United Nations’ 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery expands on the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as to identifying practices that constitute modern slavery - including forced labour, debt bondage, serfdom, forced marriage, and child labour. 

Over the course of the following decades, various legal initiatives were taken to tackle these components - considered as individual phenomena. It is only in recent years that governments have started taking a holistic approach to modern slavery (e.g., the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act), prompting companies and other types of organisations to inspect their supply chains and issue public statements on the subject. Campaigns conducted on social media have raised awareness among the general public, leading to large-scale backlash against companies allegedly involved in modern slavery (e.g., Volkswagen has been called out for benefiting from forced labour in Brazil and Xinjiang). We will explore trends and case studies in more detail in the upcoming articles of this series.