Until last September I along with thousands of others believed that slavery had been abolished. How wrong I was. In fact I had never heard about the UN International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
Slavery was not something that I was really taught about at school and not being exposed to the historical issues of the slave trade, via my history lessons, meant that my understanding of the issues then was not that developed - apart from that slavery was abhorrent, indefensible and mostly importantly now illegal.
The fact I understand now and find most shocking is that slavery never went away.
When I was offered the opportunity to work on a way of helping end contemporary slavery last year, you can imaging my surprise. This was a problem I didn't know a whole lot about and it could not possibly be happening in 2016. I was introduced to the concept of modern slavery and since that day in late September my knowledge of the topic has grown considerably.
It is mind blowing that there are more than 40 million people who are enslaved around the world (ILO and Walk Free Foundation, 2017) and that more people are not aware of their suffering. Mentioned the word 'slave' and many people conjures up images of predominantly African men in chains and on boats - but the issue today is much wider, spread across a huge variety of industries and impacts every country on the planet.
The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that came into force on 1st January 2016 specifically mentions the need to end modern slavery in order to create a more sustainable future. Target 8.7 of the section entitled goal ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’ states:
“Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.” (UNa, 2017).
This target has once again renewed the effort to end modern slavery and child exploitation, recognising the work that NGOs, activists and academics have been involved with for the last two decades and raising the issue to a global scale where it once was and is very difficult to ignore.
The scale of the issue is extreme and yet it is important to remember that this is the lowest proportion of the global population that has ever been locked in slavery (Bales, 2010). Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have worked tirelessly throughout the fourth abolition movement since it began in the 1990s; the awareness of the issue has increased and the development of more legislation – such as the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the United Kingdom – has meant that this renewed problem has reached the mainstream. Despite the UK Act’s issues, the move towards newer legal frameworks will hopefully mean that the issue of contemporary slavery is accepted on a more global footing.
In a little over a year I have researched the impacts of slavery on people, the environment and the sheer scale of the problem around the world. I, alongside many others, have come to the conclusion that it can be ignored no longer. Whilst acknowledging the brilliant work of the abolition of slavery over 100 years ago and the establishment of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others which came into force on December 2nd 1949 (UNb, 2017), there has not been the eradication of modern slavery as was expected. The road to abolition has been long and of varied success; one this is still not finished.
This is where I believe collaboration is vital. At the University of Nottingham there is a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the problem of slavery worldwide – the Rights Lab (UoN, 2017). I am from a geography background and my research specialises in using remotely sensed satellite imagery, which has predominantly been used for ecological research. The application of remotely sensed imagery could be developed to tackle a range of industries that are known to use slave labour. Remote sensing has not been used extensively within this field but thinking creatively about the benefits different industries could provide in the fight against slavery will help to make the issue more widely known and end it sooner. The wider our ties extend in the fight against slavery, the more likely we are to win.
If we are to end modern slavery by 2030 as the SDGs suggest then we must educate, collaborate and be creative in our methods of research. Building relationships with those who free enslaved people on the ground and possibly new ways of looking at the issue from the sky. A variety of approaches are required as no two types of slavery and the same – this is why a range of disciplines with different ideas is important to solving the problem.
Advocating for the liberation of enslaved people is ongoing, but if we all work together we can end slavery by 2030. It is important to remember that abolition may have begun, but it has not yet finished. Combining the expertise of a huge range of fields is the way forward – collaboration may be the key to ending this contemporary crisis.
References
ILO and Walk Free Foundation. (2017). Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriages. ILO and Walk Free Foundation. Geneva, Switzerland.
Bales, K. (2010). How to combat modern slavery. TED Talks. Available at https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_bales_how_to_combat_modern_slavery [Accessed 10.10.2016].
UNa. (2017). Sustainable Development Goal 8. Available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg8 [Accessed 2.12.2017].
UNb. (2017). International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2 December. Available at http://www.un.org/en/events/slaveryabolitionday/background.shtml [Accessed 2.12.2017].
UoN. (2017). The Rights Lab. Available at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/world/beacons/rights-lab/ [Accessed 2.12.2017].
Slavery was not something that I was really taught about at school and not being exposed to the historical issues of the slave trade, via my history lessons, meant that my understanding of the issues then was not that developed - apart from that slavery was abhorrent, indefensible and mostly importantly now illegal.
The fact I understand now and find most shocking is that slavery never went away.
When I was offered the opportunity to work on a way of helping end contemporary slavery last year, you can imaging my surprise. This was a problem I didn't know a whole lot about and it could not possibly be happening in 2016. I was introduced to the concept of modern slavery and since that day in late September my knowledge of the topic has grown considerably.
It is mind blowing that there are more than 40 million people who are enslaved around the world (ILO and Walk Free Foundation, 2017) and that more people are not aware of their suffering. Mentioned the word 'slave' and many people conjures up images of predominantly African men in chains and on boats - but the issue today is much wider, spread across a huge variety of industries and impacts every country on the planet.
The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that came into force on 1st January 2016 specifically mentions the need to end modern slavery in order to create a more sustainable future. Target 8.7 of the section entitled goal ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’ states:
“Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.” (UNa, 2017).
This target has once again renewed the effort to end modern slavery and child exploitation, recognising the work that NGOs, activists and academics have been involved with for the last two decades and raising the issue to a global scale where it once was and is very difficult to ignore.
The scale of the issue is extreme and yet it is important to remember that this is the lowest proportion of the global population that has ever been locked in slavery (Bales, 2010). Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have worked tirelessly throughout the fourth abolition movement since it began in the 1990s; the awareness of the issue has increased and the development of more legislation – such as the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in the United Kingdom – has meant that this renewed problem has reached the mainstream. Despite the UK Act’s issues, the move towards newer legal frameworks will hopefully mean that the issue of contemporary slavery is accepted on a more global footing.
In a little over a year I have researched the impacts of slavery on people, the environment and the sheer scale of the problem around the world. I, alongside many others, have come to the conclusion that it can be ignored no longer. Whilst acknowledging the brilliant work of the abolition of slavery over 100 years ago and the establishment of the UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others which came into force on December 2nd 1949 (UNb, 2017), there has not been the eradication of modern slavery as was expected. The road to abolition has been long and of varied success; one this is still not finished.
This is where I believe collaboration is vital. At the University of Nottingham there is a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the problem of slavery worldwide – the Rights Lab (UoN, 2017). I am from a geography background and my research specialises in using remotely sensed satellite imagery, which has predominantly been used for ecological research. The application of remotely sensed imagery could be developed to tackle a range of industries that are known to use slave labour. Remote sensing has not been used extensively within this field but thinking creatively about the benefits different industries could provide in the fight against slavery will help to make the issue more widely known and end it sooner. The wider our ties extend in the fight against slavery, the more likely we are to win.
If we are to end modern slavery by 2030 as the SDGs suggest then we must educate, collaborate and be creative in our methods of research. Building relationships with those who free enslaved people on the ground and possibly new ways of looking at the issue from the sky. A variety of approaches are required as no two types of slavery and the same – this is why a range of disciplines with different ideas is important to solving the problem.
Advocating for the liberation of enslaved people is ongoing, but if we all work together we can end slavery by 2030. It is important to remember that abolition may have begun, but it has not yet finished. Combining the expertise of a huge range of fields is the way forward – collaboration may be the key to ending this contemporary crisis.
References
ILO and Walk Free Foundation. (2017). Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriages. ILO and Walk Free Foundation. Geneva, Switzerland.
Bales, K. (2010). How to combat modern slavery. TED Talks. Available at https://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_bales_how_to_combat_modern_slavery [Accessed 10.10.2016].
UNa. (2017). Sustainable Development Goal 8. Available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg8 [Accessed 2.12.2017].
UNb. (2017). International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2 December. Available at http://www.un.org/en/events/slaveryabolitionday/background.shtml [Accessed 2.12.2017].
UoN. (2017). The Rights Lab. Available at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/world/beacons/rights-lab/ [Accessed 2.12.2017].
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