A group of inmates work in a vegetable garden at Arizona state prison. Jeff Robbins/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.
The 21st century has witnessed the fervour of neo-abolitionism hitting the mainstream. The fight against human trafficking and modern slavery that now pervades the airwaves and social media appears to have provided cover for governments to quietly solidify and expand their right to use forced labour.
How could this be? Hasn’t slavery been abolished? The first part of the answer lies in the distinction drawn between forced labour and slavery in national and international law. The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) 1930 Forced Labour Convention established the legal definition of forced labour as “all work or services which is exacted from any person under the menace of a penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”. Slavery, by contrast revolves around control; the type of control that people have over the things they own. In law, this is expressed as “the powers attaching to the right of ownership”.
