A global view of modern slavery

Slavery can be described through three elements: control through violence, economic exploitation and the loss of free will. If a person can’t walk away from her situation without fear of violence, she is a slave. If a person is not paid for her work, or at a level that barely keeps her alive from one day to the next, she is a slave.

Contemporary slavery shares with the slavery of the past the essentials of violence and exploitation, but today it is not a legal institution. Modern slavery has two characteristics that make it very different from slavery of the past. Today, slaves are cheap, and they are disposable.

The drop in prices can be explained by the population explosion at the end of WWII. Indeed, it helped create a flood of potential slaves. It is an illustration of the laws of supply and demand: with so many potential slaves, their value has plummeted.

This drop in prices makes the slaves disposable as buying a slave is no longer a major investment. Today, slaves are temporary: there is no reason to invest in their upkeep.

1. International Law

Slavery has been officially abolished in all the countries of the world for nearly thirty years. Indeed, Mauritania was the last country to abolish slavery in 1981.

The modern world has accepted that slavery is a great evil and there are many international documents that denounce it and make it illegal. Between 1815 and 1957, around 300 international agreements were implemented, with varying degrees of success, to suppress slavery.

The first international document against slavery was the 1815 Declaration Relative to the Universal Abolition of the Slave Trade.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” (Article 1) and that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” (Article 4).

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