By Brandon Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – According to the Global Slavery Index, released Thursday by the Walk Free Foundation, an anti-slavery charity, Haiti ranks among the countries with the highest prevalence of slavery. Of the 162 countries ranked by the Index, Haiti had the second highest proportion of slaves, behind Mauritania, a western African nation.
In addition, the top ten countries on the Global Slavery Index account for three quarters of the 29.8 million people currently living in slavery. India, which has a slave population of over 14 million people, has the greatest slave population.
The United States came in 134th, with an estimated slave population of 60 thousand.
Kevin Bales, one of the authors of the Index, when asked why slavery continues to persist, said that, “the reasons varied from country to country, but one constant was that it remained a hidden problem.” He hopes that that the Index will provide “a bit of a wake up call” to the world’s governments.
The Index used reports from governments and non-profit organizations, as well as statistical estimates in making its determinations and considered a range of practices including forced labor, bonded labor, human trafficking, forced marriages, and the use of children in the military. It draws on over ten years of research and claims to contain the most authoritative data on slavery conditions.
In Haiti 2.1% of the population, or 1 of every 48 people, are enslaved. Most of the slaves, however, are children. One in ten children are “trapped” in a system of child labor and are referred to as “restavecs.” They serve families that they are sent to and are generally responsible for preparing meals, fetching water from wells, cleaning, doing laundry and emptying bedpans. Generally, they sleep on the floor, are up at dawn and are often subject to physical and sexual abuse. Many run away but according to the report they are often “trafficked into forced begging and commercial sexual exploitation.”
The Walk Free Foundation represents Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s commitment to preventing global slavery. Other global leaders such as former U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates are involved in the Foundation.
Clinton acknowledged that the study was not perfect but she hopes that it “urge[s] leaders around the world to view this index as a call to action, and to stay focused on the work of responding to this crimes.”
For more information, please see:
Associated Press – Mauritania, Haiti Top New Global Slavery Index – 16 October 2013
CNN – India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria On Slavery’s List Of Shame, Says Report – 17 October 2013
USA Today – Mauritania, Haiti Top New Global Slavery Index – 17 October 2013
Washington Post – Worldviews – 17 October 2013
