slavery and human rights

Slavery
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"Slave" redirects here. This article is about a social system: for other uses, see Slavery (disambiguation) and Slave (disambiguation).


From the title page to abolitionist Anthony Benezet's book Some Historical Account of Guinea, London, 1788
Slavery is a social-economic system under which certain persons — known as slaves — are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to perform labour or services. The term also refers to the status or condition of those persons who are treated as the property of another person or household. This is referred to as "chattel slavery".
Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation in return for their labour. As such, slavery is one form of unfree labour.
Although outlawed in nearly all countries today slavery is still secretly practiced in many parts of the world. There are an estimated 27 million victims of slavery worldwide.[1][2]
In Mauritania alone it is estimated that up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[3][4] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[5] In Niger, slavery is also a current phenomenon; a Nigerien study has found that more than 800,000 people are still slaves, almost 8% of the population.[6][7]