Originally published on the CGS blog on November 21, 2014.
I’ll preface this blog by saying that I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Global Slavery Index 2014 was released recently and reports that there are close to 36 million modern day slaves in the world, roughly 0.5% of the world’s total population. Startlingly, these numbers are a significant increase to previous estimates, due to what the report calls “improved accuracy and precision of measures,” and that they are “uncovering modern slavery where it was not seen before.” The good news, though, is that information is always the first step towards taking positive action.
The report also listed which countries had the highest percentage of slaves and which had the highest numbers total. Coming in at the coveted number 1 spot in slaves per capita was the West African nation of Mauritania, with 4% of its population in bondage. Mauritania has consistently struggled to eliminate the practice of modern-day slavery, and many experts agree that those in power likely don’t want it abolished. Mauritania was the last country on the planet to abolish slavery formally in 1981 and only passed legislation laying out legal ramifications for traffickers in 2007, after giving in to international pressure.
Unfortunately, several factors have contributed to Mauritania’s lack of effective abolition. Like many arid countries, Mauritania struggles to police its territory adequately (like it wants to anyway). Its lack of resources and critical infrastructure also play a key role in that respect. Moreover, Mauritania’s slave culture is deeply embedded in civil society. African history professor Bruce Hall has said that the depth of slavery in Mauritania is “unusually severe” in a country where darker-skinned Haratins have been slaves to the lighter-skinned Berbers for centuries.
Even more troubling is the jailing of Mauritania’s foremost abolitionist Biram Dah Abeid. While not much is known about the reason for his incarceration, Abeid’s presidential ambitions and resolve are probably a good jumping-off point for the discussion. With these facts in mind, we can conclude that slavery is not only a cultural epidemic, but also institutionally reinforced, making it difficult for outside forces to free those in chains.
After Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Qatar, and India round out the top five countries in slaves per capita respectively. In terms of total number of slaves, India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia make up the top five. India alone has about 14 million people in some type of slave condition, while second-place China has 3.2 million in bondage. From these statistics one can see that slavery isn’t confined to third-world countries, but also democracies in India, thriving economies like China and developed countries like Russia.
Slavery doesn’t work within our classical definition of state sovereignty. It’s a global illness that spreads and often benefits from crossing borders, luring people abroad with the false promise of legitimate work. The world needs to look at this report and understand that there are hot spots for human trafficking and slavery, but also to realize that there is work to be done everywhere—on every level of governance. That’s why CGS soon will be working to lobby for H. R. 3344 to address a few key issues related to human trafficking. If the US takes a proactive role against this issue, we can encourage other states to do the same, and IGOs like the UN will follow suit.
