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Slavery

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Sandwich for achieving this debate today, as it serves to bring us up to date with a very uncomfortable aspect of modern life. We all thought that slavery was abolished in 1832, and in North America at the end of the Civil War, but perhaps that always was too complacent a view. Clearly, extreme poverty is at the root of most slavery, and the campaign to make poverty history, with its amazingly attended worldwide Live8 concerts all over the world, was a hopeful sign of people actively demonstrating their concern. It is worth reminding ourselves that that worldwide concern could only have been brought together by modern communication techniques. If ever there was a definitive example of public service broadcasting, this was it. But if poverty   is a potential breeding ground for slavery, we all need also to acknowledge openly—governments especially—that complex modern forms of slavery are a quite distinct problem that must also be tackled directly and universally. Thus, it is particularly timely and appropriate that Hull University has set up the Wilberforce Institute. WISE’s patron, Archbishop Tutu, said:"““Tragically slavery and the violation of human rights are still with us in the 21st century. The Institute will be a beacon that will continue to throw a light on issues that too often are overlooked””." My noble friend’s choice of this subject for debate has made me aware of a quite remarkable, self-researched book, also applauded by the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. The author, Kevin Bales, writes that,"““everyone knows what slavery is—yet almost no-one knows””." I suspect that that is all too true, though clearly not true of noble Lords. How many of our children, for example, are taught that it still exists today? Does the issue of slavery form part of today’s school curriculum in the UK—not as history, but as current affairs, perhaps within the citizenship agenda—as an example of human rights abuse, alas still continuing today? In one or two places we are beginning to wake up to that. When I went with your Lordships’ Select Committee on the BBC Charter to Bristol a couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to learn that at least in that city—whose historic prosperity was generated by the   slave trade—the BBC has recently presented that   aspect to schools. They produced an excellent programme, with the help of well-known local artists and of children, who researched the background of Bristol’s most famous citizen, Edward Colston, the local merchant from two centuries ago. His huge wealth, of which he gave most generously to support many needy Bristol projects, came substantially from slave trading. The programme acknowledges, on the other hand, that much of multi-racial Bristol’s multi-culturalism, of which they are rightly proud today, stems directly from that period. But do those of us living in our developed world really have any idea of the conditions under which the estimated 27 million slaves—which some put as high as 200 million—exist today? Their conditions, as Bales says, are far often worse than when slavery was legal. The types of slavery that he describes range right across the globe—from Thailand, Pakistan and India to Mauritania and Brazil—and are complex. Slave dealers are often involved in other criminal activities, not least drug-trafficking. I find one other element particularly disturbing. As population has increased so dramatically in poorer countries, today’s individual slaves are of much less cash value to their owners than in Wilberforce’s time. Today, buying a slave is no longer regarded as a major investment. That does not mean that the trade is not hugely profitable. The value of individual slaves has fallen so low that the aim of their owners is to exploit them ruthlessly, to get as much work out of them as quickly as possible, and then quite literally discard them. All slavery is abhorrent, but today I want to mention the particularly appalling abuse of women and children. First, children: we know something about war slavery, the kidnap and brutalisation of children to be child soldiers. Indeed, we have heard about that today and know about it from many press reports. Quite distinct from that, Bales tells us that in India there are between 65 and 100 million children under 14 years of age who are working more than eight hours a day. Of these, at least 15 million are literally child slaves. Anti-Slavery International puts the number of children in ““unconditional”” forms of labour at 8.5 million. It goes without saying that schooling, that lifeline to a better future, is probably not available to any of those children. Turning now to women; as we know, many remain second-class citizens in their own countries. It is unsurprising, then, that two-thirds of those trafficked for labour are women and girls. Worse still, almost all of those trafficked for sexual exploitation are women. Worldwide, that is a highly profitable trade and expanding rapidly. There are even examples beginning to appear in this country. I wish there was time to discuss in detail the slavery that Bales describes, of an increasing number of young, 14 year-old, Thai girls who are bought from their parents and find themselves working in brothels and subject to extreme violence if they perform inadequately or try to escape. They are also given impossibly large, completely phoney debts to pay back before they have any hope of release. The result, of course, is that the debt is never paid and they are never freed. A country like ours, which acts strongly to uphold the human rights of children, with our proud record of legislation and policies to promote equal opportunities between the sexes, surely has a particular duty to give the abolition of all slavery a far higher profile—especially where women and children are concerned—in our international responsibilities. This debate gives us the opportunity to ask exactly where action against slavery stands on our own Government’s list of priorities. As my noble friend Lord Sandwich has asked, what action are Her Majesty’s Government taking to promote the UN protocol to prevent, suppress and punish the trafficking of persons, especially women and children, which was passed as recently as 2000? With our Prime Minister’s chairmanship of two important powerful international organisations this year, I hope that the Minister can assure the House that slavery features specifically on these agendas. It is surely time for us to acknowledge explicitly that the continuing stain of slavery shames every single one of us and that we are all partly responsible. Rather than leaving superb organisations such as Anti-Slavery International to fight the battle alone, we must all join in this great crusade.