Contemporary Slavery: Background information when reading A Crime So Monstrous

Contemporary Slavery

This article relates to A Crime So Monstrous

On October 28, 2000, President Clinton signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act into law. It charges the State Department to direct and sponsor programs that combat slavery. It also is responsible for evaluating the abolition efforts of any nation with more than 100 slaves.

One of the primary tools the State Department uses is an annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. It assigns each country one of three designations:

• Tier 1: Those countries working hard and succeeding in eradicating slavery.
• Tier 2: Countries working hard towards abolition, but failing.
• Tier 3: Countries making no effort at all to curb slavery.

Non-trade sanctions will be enacted against Tier 3 countries if there has been no change in their efforts (although the President can waive Tier 3 status if he chooses to do so).

The TIP Report has had mixed results. The trade sanctions have been ineffective, but often countries listed as Tier 3 will be embarrassed into making changes. Passing a law against slavery is enough to bring a nation up to Tier 2 status. This has unfortunately led to laws that have no teeth, are not enforced, or punish the victim. In addition, President Bush chose to waive Tier 3 status in a number of cases based on political and/or economic factors.

Interesting Links:

• A recorded conversation between Skinner and a Bucharest pimp in which Skinner negotiates to buy a woman for the price of a used car.
• Information about slavery and the U.S. Government's response.
• A listing of countries by tier (note that, despite having an estimated 50,000 slaves, the USA does not appear on its own TIP list).

What You Can Do (from the A Crime So Monstrous website):

Worldwide, there are more slaves today than at any point in human history. But as a percentage of world population, there are fewer now than ever before. Within a generation, we can wipe the crime from the face of the earth.

Act. I. Understand the problem. Slaves are forced to work, under threat of violence, for no pay beyond subsistence.

Act II. Spread the word. Rally community organizations, write elected officials, and press every candidate for office in 2008 to commit to abolition.

Act III. Give to the Crime So Monstrous Fund which supports Free The Slaves and its British sister, Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization.
more information.

Filed under Society and Politics

This "beyond the book article" relates to A Crime So Monstrous. It originally ran in April 2008 and has been updated for the March 2009 paperback edition. Go to magazine.