US State Department makes baseless claims against Iran (14)

In the year 1949, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution which banned human trafficking and sexual exploitation, while naming 2nd of December as the day of abolition of slavery.

The main goal behind setting this date as the day of abolition of slavery was to wipe out modern slavery, such as human trafficking, sexual exploitation, child labor, forced marriages, and recruitment of children in armed confrontations and hostilities.

Slavery has existed in human communities as of ancient times. History attests that the weak and fragile have always been abused by the powerful in the human community. However, the time came in which mankind could no longer bear this exploitation and rejected slavery.

Today, slavery continues to exist in a different form and shape. The present day slaves are much cheaper, especially throughout the poor regions of the world. Currently, slavery is maintained through resorting to violence and kidnapping individuals.

Human Rights Watch in a recent meeting in Geneva announced that a new international treaty should be sealed which would compel guilds and companies to end modern slavery.

According to the latest estimates of the International Labor Organization, which is affiliated to United Nations, around twenty-one million people in the world are currently forced into labor. Human Rights Watch, in a report, noted that many workers, including those in clothing factories, tobacco farmlands, miners, and migrant workers which are recruited in the construction projects, are systematically exploited, without any access to lawyers.

United Nations has pointed out that in the contemporary era, slavery is the consequence of poverty, social isolation, marginalization of individuals, lack of access to education, and corruption in the society. The victims of modern slavery are usually poor and vulnerable individuals, including migrant workers who turn to smugglers, and women who are forced into prostitution.

Meanwhile, one of the bleakest aspects of modern slavery is human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Currently, based on the latest figures, over twenty one million people, including men, women, and children are forced into slave labor and are exploited as modern day slaves, around the world. Unfortunately, these individuals are enslaved in different forms and shapes.

Additionally, every year, nearly one million children disappear in Europe, due to a number of reasons such as fleeing home, getting kidnapped, and migrating to other countries. Many of these children are girls that are enslaved. Meanwhile, the European Commission, in a recent report, announced that human traffickers earn over $40b per annum, round the world.

Currently, many developed states, including US, which claims to champion human rights, carry out illegal medical tests on black Africans. Thus, the unknown diseases usually originate from Africa.

These are all the ominous signs of modern slavery in the contemporary world. The regimes, which claim to champion human rights, have created concepts such as neo colonization and modern slavery in the recent century, which is a prime example of commitment of crimes against humanity.

According to UN officials, despite the abolition of slavery, this unwanted phenomenon continues to exist in a different form and shape.

Even in an upscale district in a European country, or at the heart of US, a modern day slave may be working for an individual which he/she considers as his/her owner.

A research institute in England recently published a report on modern slavery in that country, while accusing the British statesmen, police, and social forces of indifference toward modern slavery.

The London-based paper, The Guardian, in a report which was published last year, termed the failure of efforts to uproot modern slavery in Britain as shocking and shameful.

Meanwhile, the British Home Secretary has admitted that slavery is widespread in this European country and many are enslaved in different parts of England.

In a global report on slavery which was published in the year 2013, it was stated that roughly thirty million individuals are enslaved worldwide, some of which have been enslaved as of childhood in parts of West Africa and South Asia. The studies which have been carried out by an organization, active in the campaign against modern slavery, shows that the average price of a slave is $90.

In addition to European countries, the need for cheap labor in the US and Canada has also promoted human trafficking, and every year human traffickers transfer thousands of individuals, who dream of a better life, to these countries. These individuals are then forced into working with lowest wages and under the worst possible conditions.

Another accredited organization in Australia has estimated that those who are born into slavery, are sexually exploited, or are forced into labor due to accumulation of debts, have raised from 35.8 million individuals in the year 2014 to 45.8 million individuals in the current year. Based on this report, two thirds of slaves reside in Asia, with 58% of slaves living in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, based on UN reports, the final destination of half of the victims of human trafficking is the US.

MR/SS