CYIL 2012

JANA ONDROVIČOVÁ CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ most of the countries where it is practised. The term “modern slavery“ takes various forms and affects people of all ages, sex and race. Common characteristics distinguish slavery from other human rights violations. A slave is: – forced to work, usually through mental or physical treatment; – owned or controlled by an “employer”, usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse; – treated inhumanely as a commodity or bought and sold as “property”; – physically constrained or deprived of freedom of movement. 2. The term “modern slavery” Although slavery is illegal in every country in the modern world, 1 it still exists, and even in the narrowest definition of slavery it is likely that there are far more slaves now than ever before. It is indicated that at least 27 million people 2 live in conditions which fulfill one or more forms of modern slavery. Modern slavery differs from historical slavery in several ways. 3 Firstly, there are more slaves than ever before and the human race is not the main factor to consider. Secondly, no-one seriously defends slavery any more. Thirdly, slavery is illegal everywhere but it continues because of high rates of corruption and crime. The power of the slave owner is always subject to the power of the state. Slavery can only continue to exist if governments permit it to, and some writers claim that government corruption is a leading cause of the persistence of slavery. Furthermore slaves are cheaper than ever 4 and can generate high economic returns for those who practise the slavery. Modern slavery is very cheap. This has made modern slavery even worse than that of the Atlantic Slave Trade. 5 At the beginning of the 20 th century the term modern slavery was unknown. For this kind of activity a common term used was “trafficking in persons” or “human trafficking”. Today we cannot connote these terms with modern slavery. Slavery is when one person completely controls another person, using violence to maintain that control, exploits them economically, pays them nothing and they cannot walk away. Human trafficking is the modern day slave trade. It is the process of enslaving a person. It happens when someone is tricked or kidnapped or coerced, and then taken into slavery. If moving a person from one place to another does not result in 1 The last country to abolish slavery was the African state of Mauritania, where a 1981 presidential decree abolished the practice. However, no criminal laws were passed to enforce the ban. In August 2007 Mauritania’s parliament passed legislation making the practice of slavery punishable by up to 10 years in prison. 2 see: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Slavery/SRSlavery/Pages/SRSlaveryIndex.aspx (opened 3. 4. 2012). 3 Act to end slavery now , Anti-Slavery International and Set All Free, 2006; p. 16. 4 Low prices of slaves influence how the slaves are treated. Slave owners used to maintain long relationships with their slaves, but slaveholders no longer have any reason to do so. If we do not need to pay a lot of money for someone, that person is disposable, as far as we are concerned. On the other hand while the price of slaves has gone down, the return on the slaveholder‘s investment has skyrocketed. 5 James Pope-Hennessy; Sins of the Father: The Atlantic Slave Traders 1441-1807 ; Castle Books, 2004; p. 12.

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