Home : Poverty Alleviation : Humanitarian and Medical Aid

 email this page :  printer friendly page

Humanitarian and Medical Aid

Modern Slavery & Poverty?

Islam has clearly and categorically forbidden the primitive practice of capturing a free man, to make him a slave or to sell him into slavery. On this point the clear and unequivocal words of the Prophet are as follows:

• "There are three categories of people against whom I shall myself be a plaintiff on the Day of Judgement. Of these three, one is he who enslaves a free man, then sells him and eats this money" (al-Bukhari and Ibn Majjah).

The words above are general, they have not been qualified or made applicable to a particular nation, race, country or followers of a particular religion. The Muslim community, historically, adopted a systematic stepwise gradual process to abolish and eliminate the age-old institution of slavery from society because of the social and economic conditions and realities prevalent. The Europeans have taken great pride in claiming that they abolished slavery from the world but only in the middle of the 19th century. Before this, the Western powers had been raiding Africa on a very large scale, capturing their free men, putting them in bondage and transporting them to their new colonies.  Although the entire human race has moved forward from direct physical slavery it still exists but in more complex, subtle forms.

Modern Slavery

For many people, the image that comes to mind when they hear the word slavery is the slavery of the Transatlantic Slave Trade cruelly instigated by the Europeans/Americans mainly, the legacy of which is still prevalent today in Africa and Asia. We think of the buying and selling of people, their shipment from one continent to another and the abolition of the trade in the 1900s. Even if we know nothing about the slave trade, it is something we think of as part of our history rather than our present. But the reality is slavery continues today although in a modified contemporary form.

Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their ‘employers'.

Slavery exists today despite the fact that it is banned in most of the countries where it is practised. It is also prohibited by the main Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Christianity, Judaism), 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery.

Women from eastern Europe are bonded into prostitution, children are trafficked between West African countries and men are forced to work as slaves on Brazilian agricultural estates. Contemporary slavery takes various forms and affects people of all ages, sex and race. Global capitalism and its lassez faire attitude to money, work, exploitation, globalism and control are a major root cause to many prevalent problems.

What is Slavery?
Common characteristics distinguish slavery from other human rights violations. A slave is:

• Forced to work - through mental or physical threat 
• Owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threatened abuse 
• Dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property' 
• Physically constrained or has restrictions placed on his/her freedom of movement
• Intellectual and psychological constraints - the development of an inferiority complex due to years and decades of abuse and control which may lead to fear and inaction

What Types of Slavery Exist Today?

• Bonded labour affects at least 20 million people around the world. People become bonded labourers by taking or being tricked into taking a loan for as little as the cost of medicine for a sick child. To repay the debt, many are forced to work long hours, seven days a week, up to 365 days a year. They receive basic food and shelter as 'payment' for their work, but may never pay off the loan, which can be passed down for generations.
• Forced marriage affects women and girls who are married without choice and are forced into lives of servitude often accompanied by physical violence.
• Forced labour affects people who are illegally recruited by individuals, governments or political parties and forced to work - usually under threat of violence or other penalties.
• Slavery by descent is where people are either born into a slave class or are from a 'group' that society views as suited to being used as slave labour. 
• Trafficking involves the transport and/or trade of people - women, children and men - from one area to another for the purpose of forcing them into slavery conditions.
• Financial Control of Governments and Societal infrastructures, which poor people and citizens depend upon, due to abuse of power by global multinationals, mismanagement and countries such as the USA directly and indirectly through IMF/World Bank/UN
  

Worst forms of child labour affects an estimated 179 million children around the world in work that is harmful to their health and welfare.

Take Action : Slavery & What We Buy

Complex Connections
Slavery exists today in both traditional and modern forms. Often there is no direct connection between forms of slavery and what we buy. Even where connections exist, they can be complex and difficult to untangle. Many goods or services that use slavery are part of local and domestic economies rather than for export, for example bonded labourers working on farms in Nepal, child domestic workers in the Philippines, or traditional slavery in parts of West Africa.

Much of modern day slavery therefore needs to be eliminated through research, campaigning and advocacy at the local, regional and international level. That is how Thinkers Forum International works, in partnership with local/national organisations around the world.

Making The Link: Fair and Ethical Trade
There are some examples of a direct connection between what consumers in developed countries buy and the use of slavery. Products where this may be the case include chocolate and hand-knotted rugs. Here consumer power can play an important role. Consumers can also act positively in response to issues of wider labour exploitation. Where possible, we would encourage you to buy ethically or, preferably, fairly-traded goods.

Fair Trade means that decent working conditions are assured and producers are guaranteed a fair price for their goods. Producers also receive a premium that is invested in development projects that combat poverty. Increased demand for fair trade shows small producers that people are willing to pay a fair price for their goods. It would ensure that the system grows and that more workers are helped. It also tells large companies that consumers are committed to ethical purchasing. Find out whether a fair trade labelling scheme exists in your country.

Ethically Traded Goods are monitored for their labour standards including no forced labour or illegal child labour. However, they do not guarantee a fair price.

Labour Exploitation
People are exploited at work beyond the abuses associated with slavery, for example in sweatshops or export processing zones.

Labour Standards
These seek to eliminate forced labour, child labour and discrimination in employment, while ensuring respect for the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Codes of conduct of companies and schemes such as the Ethical Trading Initiative should meet these standards. They are agreed by international labour organizations and human rights groups which through pressure and lobbying obtain the right deals for the enslaved poor.

Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations
Some of the biggest players in the global economy are Transnational Corporations. It is vital that these companies are held to account in terms of human rights, including for the way their workers are treated. 
 

Modern forms of slavery are also connected to the global economy more broadly:-

Poverty
One of the root causes of slavery and slavery-like conditions, and where globalisation exacerbates and increases poverty and inequality, it makes people more vulnerable to slavery. The increased demand for cheaper products, for example, means labour costs are driven down. This can lead to worsened conditions for workers and again, a greater vulnerability to exploitation and slavery. Unfair trade rules and the institutions governing international trade need to be changed so that trade can be used to help and not harm poor communities.

Migration And Trafficking
Increasing numbers of people are moving away from their homes in search of work. This is linked to poverty, but also to cheaper and easier means of international travel and the global media, which promotes perceptions of affluence to poorer parts of the world. Governments have tended to react to the increase in migration by making their immigration policies more restrictive. This in turn makes migrants more vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.
 

Refs: Various

^ top of page

< back