Anatolia College
Model United
Nations 2012
TOPIC B: Modern forms of
slavery
Social, Humanitarian and
Cultural Committee
Juliana Symeonidou
Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
INTRODUCTORY LETTER OF STUDENT OFFICER
Dear Delegates,
I would like to welcome you all to the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee of this year’s
ACMUN Conference. My name is Juliana Symeonidou and I am a junior (11th grade) at Anatolia College. I
have been involved in MUN since 9th grade, my first conference being JMUN, held in Turkey. I have
attended several other conferences including PAMUN and ACMUN representing European and African
Countries in different committees and the Security Council. I am also attending Harvard MUN (HMUN
2012) this January.
To my mind, MUN is a great way to learn for pressing world issues, broaden my horizons as well as meet
people from every corner of the Earth! This is your chance to participate in taking important decisions
for crucial matters which appear all around the globe and propose possible steps in meditating these
problems by submitting and caucusing your clauses and resolutions. Furthermore, it is an incredible
role-play where the delegates have the opportunity to experience the work of a true diplomat.
As far as our committee is concerned, I am positive that the topics chosen by the secretariat and the
organizing team are very interesting and enjoyable to research. First of all, modern forms of human
coercion remain as a degrading factor in a lot of people’s lives, rendering them simple “objects” and
victims of severe physical and psychological violence. Second of all, the promotion of protection from
discrimination based on the sexuality of a person is also another major issue, bearing in mind that many
people who are homosexual or bisexual are subdued to limitations in their professional or personal life,
an unfair behavior which is against the law. I would like to remind you that the quality of your papers
and generally the information you gather will play a catalytic role in the course of the sessions.
I urge every delegate to participate actively in the debate! It is vital that every nation’s policy and
opinion is heard. Under these circumstances, the committee can reach to resolutions that do not harm
any country or hinder its development.
I look forward to meeting all of you and have a fruitful and “heated” debate, with original and efficient
resolutions.
And don’t forget “If you can't go around it, over it, or through it, you had better negotiate with it”.
Best Regards,
Juliana Symeonidou
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Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM
Slavery is considered to be synchronized with civilization and made its appearance as soon as people
were organized in cities. Slavery was a basic element of every ancient civilization and wars were the
main supply of slaves. At the end of a battle, it was common practice for the victorious army to enslave
the inhabitants who would be useful as workers and kill the rest. Later on, there were more means of
acquiring slaves. Pirates used to sell their captives; criminals were often sentenced to enslavement and
impoverished citizens would give away their own children in order to survive with the money they were
given.
There is a common fallacious belief that slavery has its roots in Ancient Egypt. Although there were
enslaved people in Ancient Egypt, the theory and practice of this dehumanizing act were different from
the ones in Ancient Greece, Imperial Rome and African and Middle-East countries. The duration of the
enslavement in Egypt was limited and war prisoners and debt slaves were often released after a period
of serving their owners.
The first civilization in which slavery flourished was Ancient Greece, from the 7th century BC. The two
leading cities, Sparta and Athens, relied on slavery and forced labor. Sparta was considered to have a
form of serfdom slavery, in which people had to live and work for their slaveholders in their land. The
“helots” (term used for slaves in Sparta) lived in their own hereditary land and had few rights but were
subordinate to their Greek masters. On the other hand, the slaves in Athens didn’t have any
conventional rights; yet, there were variations as to their working and living conditions. The miners were
the most degraded slaves in the city and the hardships they went through because of their owners,
often led to death. However, the 300 Scythian archers and other slaves who were owned by the state
had the important role of composing a big part of the Greek army, which resulted in them having certain
social prestige. The majority of Athenian servants were the domestic ones, who took care of the children
or the household chores.
Imperial Rome (from the 2nd century AD) is also a solid example of the enslavement mechanisms used in
the past. The secretarial staff of the Emperor consisted of slaves who had the most privileges, compared
with other enslaved citizens. Roman slaves had to sustain extremely brutal situations and predicaments,
such as the continuing working effort in order to avoid being whipped by supervisors or were forced to
engage into dangerous battles in public arenas merely for the amusement of the Roman crowds and the
Emperor.
Of course, there are certain procedures of enslaving people that connect two or more countries. A
slavery mechanism of this kind, which was of major power throughout the history, was the “slave ships”.
Ships, departing from Great Britain, transfer goods such as alcohol, metal and firearms and exchange
them with slaves offered by the traders in Guinea. These slaves were packed into vessels and travel long
journeys under inhuman conditions without sufficient food or water. During the Atlantic slave trade
between the 15th and 19th centuries, 12 million African inhabitants were coercively embarked on this
travel to be sold, later on, as slaves. The living conditions in the ships used for the transfers were so
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Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
terrible that one in six died before they reached the West Indies. This type of illegal commerce is known
as the “triangular trade”, in which three separate ships left the port, the one of which secretly carried
slaves (the other two functioned as a hiding system for the one with the slaves).
Throughout the 19th century, slavery was ultimately abolished in the majority of the world such as
England, where the first ever abolitionist group “Anti-slavery International” was founded in 1839,
France, Spain, Puerto Rico and Brazil. However, slavery was legal in the United States prior the American
Civil War and the main form of it was “slave labor”.
Slavery in the U.S. began in Virginia, in 1619, when African people were sent to Jamestown, a North
American colony of that period, to work in tobacco fields. It was widely spread in South rather than
North America, where it didn’t contribute to the economic growth. It is quite ironic that the enslaved
African-Americans, who were fully exploited by their landlords, played a major role in setting the
appropriate foundations for the development of the New World. Slaves were imported into the
Caribbean and South America instead of being sent directly to the United States. The majority of them
were Africans and they were considered to be the only remedy for the lack of workers in the New World
dominions in Europe. Slave labor was actually very beneficial to Americans because the slaves gave
them useful advice on agriculture.
A common misconception is that European immigrants to the New World were more than the ones
imported from Africa. However, it has been stated that in the 19th century, and particularly before 1820,
for every group of six immigrants, 5 would be African and one would be of European descend 1. After the
U.S. War of Independence, which arose because of tensions between the British authorities and the
colonists in the United States, the comparison between the Afro-American slaves and themselves as
they were oppressed by the British became clearer and thus, the idea of the abolition of slavery made its
appearance. By 1804, all northern states had outlawed any act of slavery, whereas its incidents in the
South gradually increased. It has been reported that by 1860, there were approximately 4 million slaves
in the U.S., the majority of whom lived in cotton-producing areas in the South2. The Congress in the U.S.
defined the states which will allow slavery with the establishment of the Missouri Compromise.
Ultimately any act of slavery was prohibited in 1865 with the implementation of the 13 th amendment of
the United States Constitution.
CURRENT SITUATION
Nowadays, slavery is still one of the most critical problems affecting a lot of nations worldwide.
Although there are more slaves in the modern world (approximately 25 million people), they represent a
smaller proportion of the human race and the law in no way defends this mechanism. Slavery is illegal in
every country and appears only in corrupt states with a high criminality rate, as its existence is directly
linked to the corruption of the government. People are sold as slaves in very low prices and their work
can result in high financial returns. It has been said that modern slavery is more economical even than
1
2
Historical comment taken from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slav_fact.cfm
Historical comment taken from http://www.history.com/topics/slavery
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the Atlantic Slave (triangular) trade. It is estimated that human trafficking is “predicted” to outgrow drug
trafficking, the world’s most profitable criminal “enterprise”. Each year, more than one million people,
regardless their social class or age, are being trafficked across international borders against their own
will and are forced to undergo the brutal exploitation of strangers. The main sources are Africa and Asia,
both as the country of origin and as the country of destination. The victims are often located in brothels
or hidden sweatshops where they are forced to follow orders from people they haven’t met before.
Another important difference between the modern and the former slave trade is that, at present, is not
racially-biased as it was in the past with Africans being the main victims. People from every continent
are now being enslaved, especially women and children.
The majority of the victims, especially the female ones, are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Traffickers sell thousands of women and children online on a daily basis. Individuals
Despite the fact that sex trafficking (and human trafficking, in general) hinders a state’s (social)
development and has grim consequences on the social structure, governments maintain a rather
reticent attitude regarding the “healing” of the situation. Additionally, this kind of trade is obscured and
hidden from the public eye. Thus, this renders the location of the victims very difficult and the offenders
are not being punished because of the transparency of the slave trade “networks”. An auspicious sign in
this issue is that no industry nowadays depends on slaves for workforce.
However, the current situation is still disappointing with most countries facing major social problems
and difficulties due to human trafficking. What’s even more disturbing is that a lot of parents willingly
render their children victims of this menacing mechanism. Mostly in Asia and Africa, they sell them to
traffickers under the misleading conception that they will be able to enjoy a better and more privileged
life if they are with rich people and not with their impoverished family. Others do so led by the idea that
they will have “one less mouth to feed”.
Other occasions of human trafficking mainly in Eastern Europe appear when young women accept fake
job offers for nannies in Western Europe and the United States. What actually happens is that the
women who are lured into these offers end up providing services as sex slaves, a “profession” far from
the one promised. Also, young girls seeking acting or modeling careers are common victims of human
trafficking because, due to their naivety and their passion to fulfill their dreams the easiest and most
direct way possible, they fail to pay attention to the multiple dangers of the “deal” they are sealing.
Additionally, Eastern Europe is considered to be a very beneficial and fertile bloc of countries for
traffickers bearing in mind that the economy and the political life deteriorated together with the
collapse of communism. Hence, people have opened themselves to any possible option of
“employment” in order to combat poverty and manage to survive. This aspect of human trafficking is
mostly experienced in Belarus and Moldova3.
3
Information taken from http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/trafficking/CQResearcher.pdf
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Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
WHAT IS MODERN SLAVERY
Despite the evident progress in our world of the 21st century, the era of massive technological and
cultural advance, there still are cases of slavery4 around the world. People are no longer sold in auctions
for the highest bid; slavery has changed faces without though losing its devastating and dehumanizing
character it is important to say that subduing any person to any form of slavery is considered illegal in
every nation. The forms in which slavery is experienced today are not always obvious (as they are not
always pertaining to one person owning another, something known as “chattel slavery”) and, hence, can
escape punishment.
First and foremost, there is the bonded labor (otherwise known as debt bondage) which is the usage of
a person’s services to liquidate a loan they took. The UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of
Slavery reached the conclusion, after an investigation held in 1998 that there were 20 million people
who owed money and, because of their inability to pay them off directly, had to experience bonded
labor. It is common for the employer to create such working conditions that the “enslaved” laborer
cannot repay their debt and, therefore, remains subservient to them. Low paychecks, deductions in
alimentation and lodging as well as high interest rates are some of the foul measures adopted by the
employers in debt bondage. The debt is often inherited to younger members of the family who are
forced into this form of slavery and children can also be included in debt bondage because of extreme
family poverty. It was estimated that in India, in 2007, there were approximately 15 million children
providing their services for the production of children’s clothes for famous market chains in order to pay
off a loan their relatives had taken. Furthermore, migrant workers are often involved in bonded labor so
that they can repay the person who smuggled them into the country in fear of being deported.
Child labor is prevalent in Asia with 153 million children working in transport (3.8%), agriculture (70.4%),
construction (1.9%) as well as community services (6.5%). In Africa there are 83 million children forced
to work under hideous circumstances whereas in Latin America, there are approximately under-aged
workers in the mentioned fields of “employment”.
Another form is the marital and sexual slavery5. Such a slavery form often bolsters the revival of the
institution of dowry, bearing in mind that the women’s property is the main criterion in this “bazaar”.
Unfortunately, these acts have not yet become extinct and take place in countries such as Bulgaria,
Turkey, Russia, Syria, India and China. In some cases under-aged girls are involved in this illegal
commerce. A clear example of this treatment is Anwari Khatoon, a 22-year-old woman who travelled to
the northern Indian state of Haryana with the intention of paying a visit to a relative but ended up
married to a man with six children from his former wife. Haryana is a notorious state for bride bazaars
due to the low ratio of girls to boys (there are far less females than males). The man paid 10,000 rupees,
which equals $220 to “buy” Anwari. There is, additionally, such a market flourishing from the “inside
4
Slavery is generally defined as the state of servitude in which the victim is bound to the slaveholder, who exploits them in many different
ways.
5
It refers to the act of an enforced marriage with the promotion and selling of wives, as if they were material products.
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circle”. The ‘owners’ of the women sell their wives to others who express interest and, thus, the victims
are trapped in a vicious cycle with extremely low chances to escape.
Major problems can arise from marital slavery such as forced prostitution and sexual exploitation of
females through blackmail or the threat of penalty. Sexual slavery has a lot of incidents in the Middle
and Far East with the People’s Republic of China and Thailand being the two main countries in this issue.
All countries in the Middle East6 serve as destination and source nations for enslaved victims. Lebanon is
a transit point for women and children involved in sex trafficking from Eastern Europe, and women from
Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Ethiopia who travel to the country in search of a job as a domestic
helper, end up working in brothels. Women and girls in Iraq are trafficked for sexual or labor slavery to
Syria, Turkey, Iran, Yemen, China and the Philippines and Iranian women are often sold into marriages in
order to settle debts. Victims from Iran often fall in the hands of traffickers who trade them with people
in Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait and other Middle-Eastern countries.
This is often linked with genital mutilation7 as well bearing in mind that it is prevalently an Islamic
custom. Most women trafficked to or from Africa or Middle East (where it is mostly practiced) have
been subdued to this egregious “cutting” which violates their female nature and leaves them permanent
physical and psychological scars. The fundamental issue in genital mutilation is the person’s consent,
which is not often considered since most of the “patients are children who were forced into this ritual.
Another detrimental case of contemporary enslavement is one regarding children, who are considered
to be frail and, hence, easy targets of exploitation. This may come in many sly forms, such as the
adoption of children and their imminent usage as slaves or the enlistment of child soldiers, as it
happened in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda when the country was facing a major civil war. You
should also consider the African “blood diamond” trade, which renders over 100,000 African people,
slaves of all ages and sexes, serving rich women’s (and warlords) need of jewels. In the process of
locating diamonds in unhealthy conditions, many people are either mutilated by accidents or by the
“supervisors” and others die because of thirst or hunger. These people win less than a dollar for a day’s
work and are often exploited by rebel groups. Therefore, it is obvious that the blood diamond trade is
another form of modern slavery and it is directly linked with the enlistment of children in the Army
(child soldiers), taking into consideration that the families of the children who forcefully join the army
come from poor families where the parents work in artisanal mining. Additionally, modern coercion
shares a connection with the illicit drug and arm trade, which both global markets are operating “in the
shadows”. In many cases, slave trade is regarded as a beneficial and profitable add-on to unlawful
industries which already exist, such as the drug and weaponry trade or the body organ trafficking.
The most common victims of slavery are children and women. Millions of them are sold annually and
forced to work in very cruel and dangerous conditions. The biggest part of the workforce in agricultural
and craft industries is composed by slaves. This phenomenon also has high frequency in Africa where a
6
Middle East comprises of: Bahrain, Cyprus, Yemen, Turkey, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and part of the
Neutral zone, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Syrian Arab Republic, Kuwait and Lebanon.
7
Female circumcision (either complete or partial) of the external female genitalia
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Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
family might have a whole group of slaves, either from the same or not religious and ethnic background
as their owners.
Slavery can be seen as an inhuman distortion of the simplest economic principle: to maximize the profits
you must minimize the cost of labor. The slave trade has given the opportunity for the implementation
of this rule by providing industries with trafficked human beings, who through threats and intimidation,
work for a dollar or less per day. Obviously, there are many ‘entrepreneurs’ who secretly support human
trafficking and base their companies’ financial future and superiority on coerced people. Moreover,
there are a lot of bribes given by the traffickers to employees at border control posts, which, along with
the lack in resources governments currently face, hinder the efforts to cease trafficking once and for all.
Despite the fact that there are carefully organized gangs participating actively in the circuits of human
trafficking, it is not impossible for individuals or “amateur criminals” to lure their victims without the
need of “professionals”. Traffickers took grasp of the opportunity that arose after the tsunami in
Southern Asia in 2007 and traded orphaned, vulnerable children. It was also reported that, in Haiti, after
only a couple of hours from the big earthquake that devastated the area, more than 10,000 children
were forced into trafficking either for bonded labor or for their organs8.
BLOC POSITIONS (MODERN SLAVERY IN THE MAJOR BLOCS OF COUNTRIES)
We identify as bloc positions the policies of highly developed countries usually leading the formation of
alliances and resolutions in the UN meetings. Additionally, in this section, I cite information regarding
the policy of both developed and developing nations which are characterized by a high frequency in
incidents of enslavement and thus will play a big role in the sessions of the committee.
UNITED STATES
In the United States, more than 230,000 children work in the agricultural domain (cocoa plantations)
and in sweatshops in an extremely unhealthy environment. Most of them are of foreign descend, whose
families came to the States seeking for a brighter future regarding their jobs and living conditions. The
traffickers take advantage of the fact that, due to their lack of knowledge or familiarity with the
language or the laws. The traffickers, also known as “landlords”, often threaten their immigrant workers
with deportation and physical abuse not only to them but to their relatives as well. They might also
confiscate their visas or passports so as to trap their victims.
Thousands of brothels in the United States operate under the guise of legitimate massage parlors. Young
girls are often coerced into having sex with strangers by knocking on doors of trucks. Prostituted
individuals are forced to do night “shifts” selling their body in order to make winnings for their
traffickers and pimps, who use extreme violence and often exploit their victims sexually. A term used for
this aspect of trafficking is “commercial sex”, taking in mind that women are treated like lifeless
products traded. However, the courts often convict the prostitutes, who are in fact the victims in the
scenario, and let the pimps, the traffickers and the criminals in this story, free to continue their illegal
8
Example (cases in these countries) taken from http://www.freedomcenter.org/slavery-today/
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work. The average age for a prostitute entering this cycle is 13 and they are often trafficked children
who are trapped in this industry. Furthermore, there is 25% more trafficking of Native born Americans
rather than immigrants.
CHINA
China is deeply involved in the trafficking of human beings serving both as a country if transit and a
country where victims are destined. The two main aspects of modern slavery in China are sexual
exploitation and debt bondage. Native men, women and children are being trafficked to places all
around the globe for forced labor or for prostitution. Moreover, China receives a lot of trafficked people
from Burma, Mongolia, Laos, Russia, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Romania for the above reasons.
Children in China are also used as sex slaves, beggars and low-paid workers in factories. Although China
has taken steps in order to protect the victims of this foul mechanism and prevent the modern human
trade, there is still an obvious lack in an organized database to identify the people who are being traded.
RUSSIA
Russia faces the same problem with sex trafficking as China, “trading” slaves with Belarus, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan. It has a triple role: source, transit and destination country. Citizens in Russia as well as
from its neighboring countries such as Belarus, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are involved in labor trafficking
and debt bondage. Most of them are coerced beggars. Sex trafficking has a very high frequency in
Russia. Women and children are trafficked to Turkey, Greece, Germany, Poland, and Israel, Poland as
well as Middle Eastern countries and other European nations. There are also cases of child sex tourism
with pedophile men from the U.S travelling to St. Petersburg so as to “rent” the body of under aged
boys and girls. Russia has made efforts for the eradication of human trafficking but the government did
not show the essential dedication in stopping modern forms of slavery. They receive a lot of help from
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as to the sheltering and protection of the victims.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE
In Albania, up to 90% of girls do not attend school and, hence are not educated, fearing for their
possible abduction and involvement in sexual servitude9. In Bosnia & Herzegovina, many women
working (as bartenders10) in nightclubs reported their usual coercion into prostitution and the
concealment of such actions by the United Nation Police Task Force. Sexual trafficking has a high
frequency rate in Moldova and Ukraine, as well, with almost 400,000 women being traded as sex slaves
for prices reaching up to $25,000 in countries like Israel. Belgium, Greece, Germany and Italy are the
main destination nations for the trafficked victims. Many slaves are imported into Bosnia & Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain, Switzerland, France, Denmark and the United Kingdom. The
major countries which serve as the source for the sex or labor slaves are Bulgaria, Albania, Latvia,
9
Information according to http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/trafficking/CQResearcher.pdf
Information according to http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/trafficking/CQResearcher.pdf
10
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Hungary, Lithuania and Romania. The trafficked people are predominantly sent to Western Europe as
well as Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Europe is now taking more steps in order to cease the illegal slave trade and to check the inflow of
people in and out each country’s borders. By using carbon-dioxide scans, heart-beat detectors, X-ray
machines as well as thermal imaging cameras, they can detect whether there are any human beings
inside ships or other means of transport being smuggled or trafficked.
AFRICA
In Africa, slavery has even more detrimental dimensions. It serves predominantly as an origin country
for the victims of trafficking, with Western Africa and Western Europe as their main destinations. The
countries which rank the highest as “source” places for slaves are Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Morocco.
Additionally, South Africa is used by traffickers as a destination full of job opportunities to lure young
women and turn them into sex slaves. After all, the regional power house is located in the southern part
of the continent so it is viewed as the promise land by impoverished people, a view that is fully exploited
by traffickers. Most coerced people who end up in South Africa are from Malawi, DPR Congo, Zambia,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, Tanzania and Swaziland. Girls in Ivory Coast can be sold as
slaves at the price of $7 and a group of 10 children shipped to work in cocoa plantations costs
approximately $420. In Mauritania, the exploitation of black African has become rather systemic and in
Sudan, slave raids on non-Muslims continue to take place with women and children as their main
victims.
ASIA
Asia is both an origin and a destination for trafficked people. The main source counties for slaves (either
for labor or sex) are China, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and
Bangladesh. On the other hand, the countries which rank high as the destination for the coerced people
are the United Arab Emirates, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cambodia, India, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia. In
Bangladesh, the annual trafficking if 25,000 women and children has a major impact on the state’s social
structure whereas in India, about 15 million children have been sold into debt bondage by their parents
so as to liquidate loans (for example, in carpet industries). Similar tactics are adopted in Myanmar,
Nepal, Thailand, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates with the sex trafficking and the forced labor of
minorities in brothels (women and under aged girls are sex slaves for tourists) and factories being one of
the most important social problems. Additionally, China is a country where human trafficking of men,
women and children is highly developed. It serves either as the source or the destination of the enslaved
victims who are trafficked from Burma, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Mongolia and Laos
and are forcefully involved in prostitution and mandatory labor, usually in brick kilns.
Countries which are currently actively fighting slavery and trafficking are Austria, Belgium, Benin,
Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hong Kong, Lithuania,
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the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Poland, Switzerland, Taiwan and the
United Kingdom.
PAST UN ACTIONS AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS CONTRIBUTION
In 1946, the Children’s Fund was established which contributed majorly to battling child slavery.
Additionally, The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, signed in 1948, prohibited any form of
slavery. The countries which first voted in favor of this Declaration are:
United States, China, United Kingdom, Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma,
Canada, New Zealand, Chile, Ethiopia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Denmark, the Dominican
Republic, Lebanon, Egypt, El Salvador, Liberia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Ecuador, India, Iran,
Iraq, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Pakistan, Panama, Peru,
Philippines, Thailand, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela.
However Saudi Arabia has not ratified it citing the violation of the Islamic law11 by the UNDHR12. In 1956,
the “Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and
practices similar to Slavery” renders illegal any acts of bonded labor (debt bondage), serf-dom and any
other type of enslavement. In 1978, the founding of “Human Rights Watch” led to the deepest
investigation and more efficient resolving of problems caused by enslavement tactics and imposing
penalties to offenders.
Another developed, anti-trafficking organization is the “Polaris Project” with a 24/7 hotline which aims
to render any form of modern slavery extinct. It is a recognized organization which is committed to
giving clinical help to trafficked people and localizing cases of human trafficking with the aim of
eradicating it. It has offered more than 5,000 nights of shelter to enslaved people since its establishment
in 2007. The Polaris Project offers social services to victims of trafficking, namely job training,
psychological therapy, comprehensive case management and transitional housing, all of which are
essential conditions so that the trafficked person can overcome the shock of this dreadful experience
and get their life back on track.
On the 2nd of December in 1949, the United Nations General Assembly passed the resolution regarding
the “Suppression of the traffic in persons and of the Exploitation of the prostitution of others”. This date
has been marked as an international day against any form of slavery and focuses on the eradication of
modern enslavement mechanisms such as forced marriage, human trafficking and the forced enlistment
of child soldiers. Furthermore, in 2007, the United Nations created the UN Global Initiative to Fight
Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) and on the 31st of August in 2010, a global action plan was launched in
order to battle coercion and modern forms of slavery as well as raise awareness everywhere. This fund
was also created in order to assist States’ governments, Intergovernmental and Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) in their mission to provide housing, food and protection for all victims of
enslavement.
11
12
Moral and Religious Codes in Islam, defined prevalently by the Quran and Muhammad’s prophecies and world theories.
Acronym for United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
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Of course, nowadays, there are far more organizations (NGOs and governmental) which contribute to a
great extent to the eradication of slavery. A very important step that has been taken is the
empowerment of Fair Trade, which is the production of goods without the abuse of the workers and
their adequate payment. The Fair Trade Foundation, an independent non-profit organization was
founded in 1992. Fair trade is very beneficial not only because it ensures that no illegal child labor is
used, but also because it gives the producers fair and realistic prices for the products, contributing to
combating poverty and the unfair trading mechanisms. The creation of a “strong” and viable market
trading only ethically sourced products is definitely going to have an extended impact on modern
business and commerce. By buying fair trade products, you can contribute to the economic growth of
developing countries. According to a research conducted in 2007 by the Fair Trade Foundation 13, people
spent $1.6 billion on certified fair-trade products (47% increase compared to 2006 figures), which
benefited over 7 .000.000 workers and their families in 58 developing nations worldwide. What the
people of Fair Trade foundation envision is the creation of a world where people can secure their
development and dent life, instead of bare survival in the roughest of conditions, through work and
practices. This can only be achieved if the structures of modern trade are the ones to determine the
development and justice of today’s reality. Fair Trade seeks to alter these structures in a way that
benefits the disadvantaged people who live in poverty with the facilitation of commercial partnerships,
their foundations on transparency and equity and the elevation of marginalized producers and their
markets.
POINTS A RESOLUTION SHOULD INCLUDE
In this section, I would like to point out some questions that the resolutions will have to ultimately
answer. These are just general guidelines and each bloc should try to answer these with paying close
attention to the policies of each country.







13
What are the additional steps that need to be taken by the UN and other organizations for the
eradication of the different forms of modern slavery?
How could there be screening of corrupt nations which have been estimated to have a lot of
incidents linked with slavery?
What more could be done for the protection and rehabilitation of the victims of any form of
slavery?
How can Fair Trade be empowered and spread in more countries?
To what extent is organized prostitution considered a form of sex trafficking? Should brothels in
countries (mostly European) where they are considered lawful be declared as illegal places and
cease to operate? Should they remain legal and gain recognition and protection by all states?
What steps need to be taken in order to detect cases of human trafficking and slave trade?
What could be done in order to strengthen cooperation among border control agencies
maintaining the main channels of communication?
Research in: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/default.aspx
pg. 11
Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee



What measures should be taken as far as legal documents (e.g. passports, identity cards) in
order to prevent their unlawful change, arbitrary confiscation or replication?
Should legal motivations be taken in the eradication of modern-day slavery? If so, what are the
essential conditions they should all satisfy?
What could be done for the victims’ compensation?
Should there be the establishment of an international database for the identification, location and
protection of the trafficked people?
CONCLUSION
All taken into consideration, it is clear that modern forms of slavery have not yet become extinct but are
still subduing people to leading miserable lives. Debt bondage, marital slavery, child enslavement and in
general the various forms of human trafficking are yet to be eradicated. In African and Asian countries,
such as Somalia, China, Taiwan and Zimbabwe slavery techniques are still in use and the intensity of the
incidents there is alarmingly high. What is extremely important in the process of the abolition of modern
slavery is the youth movement, as history has proven to us repeatedly that the young are the ones who
can implement big changes in the world.
Thus, our committee must be fully devoted (during the debate on the topic) to finding solutions and
essential steps to combat this detrimental, modern-day phenomenon. First of all, you should discuss the
reasons why human trafficking arises. Definitely, it is very clear that there are economic benefits behind
the story bearing in mind that it is the fastest growing industry with an annual global market of 42.5
billion dollars. Thus, by rendering human trafficking illegal and declaring its global cessation, all that
money would be lost and the countries taking part to this unlawful trade would have to be compensated
in some way. A step that could help not only the recovery of those nations’ economy but also the
formerly enslaved victims is the creation of more employment opportunities. According to studies made
by the International Labor Organization (ILO)14, the cassation of child labor trafficking would lead to the
increase of the world’s total income by 22% or, in money figures, global earnings would reach up to $4.3
trillion. The main continents which would be mostly benefited by this change are Asia (rise of 27%, $2.9
trillion) and Sub-Saharan Africa (rise of 54%, $584.4 billion), which is ironic with them being the major
blocs of countries to participate in human trafficking circuits.
As far as legal implications are regarded, it is true that trafficking is considered to be a CRIME AGAINST
HUMANITY. Organizations often tend for impoverished trafficked people offering them free judicial
services (as they cannot afford to pay a lawyer) so that justice is restored to the highest extent possible.
Furthermore, it is major that the legislations in this domain are formed in a way that applies to victims of
all sexes and ages.
14
Information taken from http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/trafficking/CQResearcher.pdf
pg. 12
Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
I hope that the study guide helps you understand and get a basic idea of the topic of the agenda as well
as gives you the incentive for further and more detailed research.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Every delegate can see if the country they are representing has any organizations with the aim of
combating modern forms of coercion. A good link for this kind of information is the CIA Fact book
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2196.html where you can type in
the country you are representing and find a brief description of modern slavery as far as your
delegation’s nation is concerned. Of course, you should not stop there.
Some excellent PDF files conducted by specialist in the study of human trafficking and modern coercion
that helped me in my research are these two:

http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/trafficking/CQResearcher.pdf

http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT-globalpatterns-en.pdf.
Here, you can find detailed descriptions of the incidents in various blocs of countries, diagrams
comparing the victims of each continent or details in other aspects of modern-day slavery, such as the
economic benefits behind this mechanism. In these PDF files you can also find some possible solutions
to stop the modern “slave trade”.
Additionally, what will give you a far clearer perception of the problem are examples and cases of
specific victims that have escaped this illegal industry and have reported their experience. For that you
can visit the BBC site http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/persistence.shtml as well as the
http://bikyamasr.com/tag/human-trafficking/ and search for breaking news on the subject we are
examining.
Another
great
site
which
gives
answers
to
important
questions
is
the
http://www.freedomcenter.org/slavery-today/ where you can read about the reasons, the economic
benefits behind human trafficking and plenty more. I would also suggest that you watch some videos on
the human trafficking, as long as they are appropriate and come from eligible sources. This is a site with
some relative videos http://news.change.org/stories/10-human-trafficking-videos-to-watch-right-now ,
some of which have been made by music bands who want to raise awareness of this crucial problem.
Also, as we are referring to multimedia sources of information, there is a very good movie on human
trafficking called “Taken” with Liam Neeson. It will definitely open your eyes as to what the process of
trafficking is and what happens to the victims. You can find the trailer at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbDUREBwUg.
Moreover, you should look into Fair trade http://www.fairtrade.org.uk as it is very relevant to the
abolition of modern slavery, especially the one involving children.
pg. 13
Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
Furthermore, it is very important that every delegation has knowledge of the treaties and UN
resolutions their countries have signed, as this information highly determines their policies and outlook
on the issue. The ideal database for this type of knowledge is the United Nations Website www.un.org
where you can type in the search tab the world slavery and have all the resolutions concerning this issue
as well as the countries which have signed each of them. Now that we are talking about United Nations
steps
for
the
eradication
of
slavery,
a
good
place
to
visit
would
be
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/, an organization dedicated to this crucial issue.
Also, you should know what steps your government has taken to contribute to the eradication of the
problem, a piece of information you can find on the PDF files cited above. Moreover, you ought to be
aware whether there were any incidents of slave trade or trafficking of any form within borders of the
nation you are the delegate of. Any sex slaves or people coerced into labor trafficking in your
delegation’s country? Is the nation you are representing in co-operation with other blocs of countries
into this illegal trade of human beings? The delegates of African countries should also bear in mind the
child enlistment in the army as well as the search of valuable minerals, especially the “blood diamonds”.
They are called this way for a very obvious reason, as you can all realize. Also, are there any ships now
carrying slaves for long-distance trips like in the triangular trade, also known as the “Atlantic slave
trade”, one of the worst incidents of slavery in history? The answers to these questions will play a
catalytic role in your understanding of the problem. Check out this helping link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/412628.stm (but do not confine your research to only this one,
delegates of African countries!). One of the major elements your position paper should have is a clear
policy statement regarding your national opinion on slavery and coercion, so that you know which party
to support and which resolution to sign.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2196.html

http://www.hrusa.org/workshops/trafficking/CQResearcher.pdf

http://www.un.org/en/events/slaveryabolitionday/

http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/stats-on-human-rights/statistics-on-laborconditions/statistics-on-modern-slavery/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/persistence.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/slavery/default.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-08-21-voa49-68706537.html

http://www.polarisproject.org/

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html

http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/164047/howknow/..%5Cpdf%5Cfacts.pdf
pg. 14
Anatolia College Model United Nations 2012 | Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee

http://www.history.com/topics/slavery/page2#a6

http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT-globalpatterns-en.pdf

http://bikyamasr.com/tag/human-trafficking/

http://www.humantrafficking.org/publications/11/topic

http://www.osce.org/odihr/16710

http://www.warriorsfortruth.com/slavery-sudan-islamic-fundamentalists.html

http://www.blackinformant.com/uncategorized/the-silent-screams-of-the-modern-slave-trademovement-part-ii-are-some-black-politicians-on-the-take-by-arabs

http://www.iadb.org/en/news/webstories/2006-11-02/human-traffickings-dirty-profits-andhuge-costs,3357.html

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=forcedlabor&s
eiredir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.gr%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dhuma
n%2520trafficking%2520economic%2520benefits%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26sqi%3D2%
26ved%3D0CCAQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu%252Fc
gi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1008%2526context%253Dforcedlabor%26ei%3DxsGT8PXNsGawa9wOmxDQ%26usg%3DAFQjCNHT7oI_uVFpzHbop7ZRBb_aGUzLAQ%26sig2%3DuWKZFGBU1D
UP_RQdOWCyHg#search=%22human%20trafficking%20economic%20benefits%22

https://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cndls/applications/postertool/index.cfm?fuseaction=po
ster.display&posterID=1752

http://bikyamasr.com/13645/middle-east-end-gateway-to-human-trafficking/
pg. 15