VilaWeb - Diari escola: Slavery in the 21st Century

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dimarts, 13 de novembre de 2007

It is easy to think that slavery is a thing of the past dating back to antiquity or, more recently, to the period between the 15th and 19th centuries when millions of Africans were transported to America to be sold as slaves. Sadly, however, the truth is otherwise; slavery can still be found today.

In fact, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Great Britain's decision to abolish the slave trade. The abolition was mainly brought about by philanthropists such as Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce. The British initiative was a first step against slavery, which was progressively abolished by other nations throughout the 19th century.

Most countries have laws that ban slavery. On a global level, it has been declared illegal by the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery (1956).

However, despite this, the blight of slavery still persists into the 21st century, albeit under different forms and names: forced labour, debt bondage, people trafficking, forced marriage, etc.

+ The end of child labour: Within reach. Informe sobre el treball infantil de l'Organització Internacional del Treball (2006). En set llengües.
+ The End of the Slave Trade (abolished 1807): pàgina didàctica de Newsround (BBC), commemorativa del bicentenari de la prohibició del tràfic d'esclaus a la Gran Bretanya.

Figures

+ According to Free the Slaves, slavery affects 27 million people.

'Slavery' and 'forced labour' are used as interchangeable concepts. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a specialist UN agency, forced labour is a global problem that affects nearly every country in the world. It is especially common in the more destitute countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America: girls and women forced into prostitution, immigrants are trapped in debt bondage, workers are kept in workshops or on farms where they are exploited, etc. According to the ILO, slavery affects at least 12.3 million people, although the NGO Free the Slaves puts the figure at 27 million.

People Trafficking

+ Using the ILO figures, 20% of people trafficking is for forced labour.

Using the ILO figures, 20% of people trafficking is for forced labour: almost 2.5m; 43% are victims of sexual exploitation, and 32% are for economic exploitation. This contemptible activity is particularly cruel when it involves people under the age of 18 (1.2 million a year) who are forced into prostitution or marriage against their will, are adopted illegally or forced into arduous, unpaid work.

Child Labour

+ 218 million children aged 5-17 are engaged in child labour.

Child labour is work that harms children's health, safety or morals, or interferes with their schooling, be it by preventing them from attending school, forcing them to leave early, or making them combine going to school with long working days. Throughout the world, there are 218 million children and young people (5-17 years old) who work, with 126 million of them doing dangerous jobs (2004 data). Despite these horrifying statistics, a comparison of data from 2000 with the 2004 figures gives rise for optimism with hopes of eradicating the worst of child labour tasks by 2016.

MATERIALS

Forced Labour
Format:Web
Pàgina de l'Organització Internacional del Treball sobre l'esclavitud actual.
Free the Slaves
Format:Web
Organització per l'abolició de l'esclavitud a tot el món.
Anti-Slavery International
Format:Web
Fundada el 1839, és l'organització internacional de defensa dels drets humans més antiga del món.
Modern Slavery
Format:Web
Especial de la BBC.

QUE HO SABIES?

It is estimated that 40-50% of people doing forced labour are children.
In developed countries, there are some 360,000 people engaged in forced labour.
'No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.' (Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).