In a world where over 40 million people are enslaved and one in four victims is a child, the scourge of modern day slavery is only likely to increase as a result of environmental degradation, migration and demographic shifts, a UN expert said on 9 September 2019.
The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Urmila Bhoola, said in a report presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva that over 60 per cent of those in forced labour work in the private sector and 98 per cent of women and girls subjected to forced labour have experienced sexual violence.
“These numbers, four years after States committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, must serve as a wake-up call,” Bhoola said. “The number of people at a risk of being exploited or enslaved is likely to increase based on several factors. In the wake of climate change, people may lose their livelihoods, young people who don’t have access to decent work may migrate through unsafe channels and changes in the world of work such as automation may push already vulnerable people out of their jobs. Such scenarios can increase people’s vulnerability to slavery.
“We cannot afford to stand by while more and more people are driven into forced labour, servile marriage or child labour. States and businesses must act now to end slavery, also as it is economically unprofitable. Slavery leads to increased public health costs, productivity losses, negative environmental externalities and lost income.”
Bhoola said that the global networks and systems that make people vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery such as the global financial, production and trading systems need to be tackled.
“By 2030, some 85 per cent of the more than 25 million young people entering the labour force globally will be in developing and emerging countries. Their perspectives to access jobs offering decent work will determine their level of vulnerability to exploitation, including slavery. To be prepared for such challenges and to tackle slavery more effectively, it is imperative that anti-slavery efforts are systematic, scientific, strategic, sustainable, survivor-informed and smart”, said Bhoola.
“Current efforts to end slavery have been insufficient. States and businesses must take more decisive action to end slavery by committing more resources to this effort and by adopting and implementing public policies which address contemporary forms of slavery effectively.”
* Office of the High Commissioner for Human RIghts https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/Home.aspx
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