This blog by Ousmane Aly DIALLO, is part of Wikiprogress Series on Personal Security. It resumes the recent Global Slavery Index from an Africa-centred perspective.
The Global Slavery Index is a new initiative by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, which
ranks 160 countries of the world according to three factors: estimated
prevalence of modern slavery by population, a measure of child marriage, and a
measure of human trafficking in and out of a country. The aggregate measure is
weighted in order to reflect the first dimension of the index: the estimated
prevalence of modern slavery by population (95% weighting).
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| World Map of Slavery, Source: Global Slavery Index/Walk Free Foundation |
Slavery often appears
as a phenomenon of the past, reminiscent of raids during the 18th
century, the transatlantic trade and recently, as glamourized in Hollywood
productions. But the reality is there, apparent and stark: nearly 30 million of
the world populations are enslaved under different forms varying from debt
bondage, forced begging to hereditary chattel slavery.
Of the 10 first
countries of the ranking (which hosts the highest prevalence of slavery out of
the 160 countries), 5 are in Africa: Mauritania (#1), Benin (#7), Côte d’Ivoire(#8), Gambia (#9) and Gabon (#10). 16.36% of the estimated total
29.8 million people in modern slavery are in Sub-Saharan Afric which is the likeliest place to risk enslavement in the world.
The report defines slavery the possession and control of a person in such a way as to significantly deprive that person of his or her individual liberty, with the intent of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. Usually this exercise will be achieved through means such as violence or threats of violence, deception and/or coercion. It takes many forms in 2013 and may be known by many names. Human trafficking, forced labour, slavery-like situations (debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, sale or exploitation of children, including in armed conflitct), all these phenomenons falls into the operational definition.
Definition of modern day slavery by the Global Slavery Index
Trafficking
Slavery
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1 Recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring or receipt of persons.
2 By means of threat or use of force
or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse
of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of
payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another
person (these means are not required in the case of children).
3 With the intent of exploiting that
person through:
(UN Trafficking
Protocol, 2000)
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The status
or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right
of ownership are exercised.
Includes slavery-like
practices: debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, sale or exploitation of children
(including in armed conflict) and descent-based slavery.
(The Slavery
Convention (1926) and Supplementary Slavery Convention (1956)
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Forced Labour
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All work or
service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for
which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.
(ILO Forced
Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
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The high prevalence measured for such countries as Mauritania reflect centuries-old patterns of enslavement, often based on colonial conflicts and injustice exacerbated by contemporary armed conflict.
Benin is the second worst performing African
country. Informal domestic service- child labour in most cases- is its most prevalent
form, as it is in the rest of West Africa. With the Vidomegon institution, girls
as young as seven years old, are engaged as domestic workers in exchange for
accommodation and subsistence. In a practice which runs parallel to the Trokosi
system, Vudusi, or ‘shrine slavery’ affects young girls
in Benin, who are offered as sacrifices to religious shrines, and subsequently
forced to live in and care for the shrine, and often being habitually sexually
abused
The report shows also that women and children are trafficked within Benin
from rural areas to the cities, and children are trafficked into countries in
the region like Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Guinea. But the establishment of an ILO-backed agreement between Nigeria and Benin is a positive step towards the eradication of this form of exploitation.
At the 143rd place, Mauritius was
the best performing country in Africa. The estimated enslaved population
revolves around 510-560 for a population of 1,291,416 habitants. The Island is
also performing very well on other government issues as apparent in the recent
Ibrahim Index of African Governance, where it stands as the best performing
country of the continent. Mauritius leads the region in stability and the
protection of human and worker rights, but is eclipsed by South Africa and
Gabon in terms of the extent of policies on modern slavery.
Laws and the
persistence of slavery
Most of the African countries with a high
prevalence of people under slavery has in their judicial system, a set of laws
that makes slavery illegal. In Mauritania, slavery was first recognized in 1980
following the emergence of the Haratine movement “El Hor” (“The Free Man” in
Hassanya) and further outlawed in 2007 by the first government of the post-Taya
period. But criminal prosecution rarely occurs despite the extant laws. Since the implementation of the law in 2007,
and though several victims had tried to take action against their masters, only
one conviction has been handed down, according to the report.
The lack of a
special law enforcement unit and solid data on slavery are among Mauritania’s
main obstacles to make these practices a negative reminiscence of the past.
Also in Benin, despite the existence of an
enforcement unit against child labour and a legislature criminalizing this
phenomenon, there has been little effect on this institution.
One of the
reasons suggested is that the 126 Labour inspectors investigates only on the
formal sector while the Vudusi system is present only on the informal sector.
The creation of the Central Office for the Protection of Minors (OCPM) is part
of the government’s response to child labour but the lack of any long term plan
for the care of these vulnerable children diminishes the positive reach of
these measures.
Interesting trends are apparent in this Global
Slavery Index. Slavery is mostly a cultural trait of these afflicted countries,
and it may not be considered as such by the victims and the abusers.
Furthermore, women are the most affected by
this practice. They are disproportionately represented in this population. One
explanation is that they thrive more often in the domestic sphere of their
masters which are likelier to be in remote areas, far from the reach on national justice systems.
Without access to education or alternative
means of subsistence, many believe that it is God’s wish for them to be slaves. In Mauritania, as most people in slavery are kept illiterate and uneducated, they are unaware
of the fact that according to Islamic law, a Muslim cannot enslave a fellow
Muslim. The lack of education is thus a means to perpetuate these practices.
Conflicts, extremes of poverty, high levels of
corruption, and the impact of resource exploitation to feed global markets all
increase the risk of enslavement in various African countries. Child and forced
marriages are still tolerated in the context of informal or ‘traditional’ legal
systems in many countries.
In many African countries, there are laws punishing slavery and slavery-like conditions. The perpetuation of the practice is mainly due to the lack of enforcement by the governments. Political will will be a critical factor in the eradication of these practices
Global Slavery Index 2013 by Ryan M. Baillargeon
[1] Haratine designates the manumitted
slaves. It’s different from abid which is the hassanya term to designate slaves
but in the common political discourse, the difference between the two terms has
become blurred. See here for more information, http://thinkafricapress.com/mauritania/alive-and-well-mauritania-slavery-and-its-stubborn-vestiges?utm_content=buffer583c9&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Buffer
RépondreSupprimerGhanaChild labour Afrique
The final episode of "Kweku and the bird" is about the Community Child Protection Committees set up with the help of ICI in cocoa-growing communities. It shows how communities own their own progress and development by identifying actions that need to be taken to ensure that children are better protected and have a chance to create their own future. It also shows the personal journey of Badu, Kweku’s father, from being pessimistic about sending his child to school to becoming one of the driving forces behind the Community Child Protection Committee.
to get more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0f6KVLdCCA