·
1950-1989 International anti-slavery work
slows during the Cold War, as the Soviet Block argues that slavery can only
exist in capitalist societies, and the Western Block argues that all people
living under communism are slaves. Both new and traditional forms of slavery in
the developing world receive little attention.
·
1954 China passes the State Regulation on Reform through
Labor, allowing prisoners to be used for labor in the laogai prison
camps.
·
1956 The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery regulates practices involving serfdom, debt bondage, the sale of wives,
and child servitude.
·
1962 Slavery is abolished in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
·
1964 The sixth World Muslim Congress, the world’s oldest
Muslim organization, pledges global support for all anti-slavery movements.
·
1973 The U.N. General Assembly adopts the International
Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, which
outlaws a number of inhuman acts, including forced labor, committed for the
purposes of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group over
another.
·
1974 Mauritania’s emancipated slaves form the El Hor
(“freedom”) movement to oppose slavery, which continues to this day. El Hor
leaders insist that emancipation is impossible without realistic means of
enforcing anti-slavery laws and giving former slaves the means of achieving
economic independence. El Hor demands land reform and encourages the formation
of agricultural cooperatives.
·
1975 The U.N. Working Group on Contemporary Forms of
Slavery is founded to collect information and make recommendations on slavery
and slavery-like practices around the world.
·
1976 India passes a law banning bonded labor.
·
1980 Slavery is abolished for the fourth time in the
Islamic republic of Mauritania, but the situation is not fundamentally changed.
Although the law decrees that “slavery” no longer exists, the ban does not
address how masters are to be compensated or how slaves are to gain property.
·
1989 The National Islamic Front takes over the government
of Sudan and begins to arm Baggara tribesmen to fight the Dinka and Nuer tribes
in the south. These new militias raid villages, capturing and enslaving
inhabitants.
·
1989 The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child
promotes basic health care, education, and protection for the young from abuse,
exploitation, or neglect at home, at work, and in armed conflicts. All
countries ratify it except Somalia and the United States.
·
1990 After adoption by 54 countries in the 1980s, the
19th Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference formally adopts the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,
which states that “human beings are born free, and no one has the right to
enslave, humiliate, oppress, or exploit them.”
·
1992 The Pakistan National Assembly enacts the Bonded
Labor Act, which abolishes indentured servitude and the peshgi, or
bonded money, system. However, the government fails to provide for the
implementation and enforcement of the law’s provisions.
·
1995 The U.S. government issues the Model Business
Principles, which urges all businesses to adopt and implement voluntary codes
of conduct, including the avoidance of child and forced labor, as well as
discrimination based on race, gender, national origin, or religious beliefs.
·
1995 Christian Solidarity International, a Swiss-based
charity, begins to liberate slaves in Southern Sudan by buying them back. The
policy ignites widespread controversy—many international agencies argue that
buying back slaves supports the market in human beings and feeds resources to
slaveholders.
·
1996 The RugMark campaign is established in Germany to
ensure that handwoven rugs are not made with slave or child labor. In 2010,
RugMark changes its name to GoodWeave.
·
1996 The World Congress Against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children is held.
·
1997 The U.N. establishes a commission of inquiry to
investigate reports of the widespread enslavement of people by the Burmese
government.
·
1997 The United States bans imported goods made by
child-bonded labor.
·
1998 The Global March against Child Labor is established
to coordinate worldwide demonstrations against child labor and to call for a
U.N. Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.
·
1999 Despite being barred from entering Burma, the U.N.
collects sufficient evidence to publicly condemn government-sponsored slavery,
including unpaid forced labor and a brutal political system built on the use of
force and intimidation to deny democracy and the rule of law.
·
1999 The ILO passes the Convention Against the Worst
Forms of Child Labor, which establishes widely recognized international
standards protecting children against forced or indentured labor, child
prostitution and pornography, their use in drug trafficking, and other harmful
work.
·
1999 The first global analysis of modern slavery and its
role in the global economy, Disposable People: New Slavery in the
Global Economy, estimates that there are 27 million people in slavery
worldwide.
