Sometimes called contemporary slavery, modern slavery refers to a situation where a person is exploited and completely controlled by another person or organization, without the ability to leave. Often seen as a by-product of poverty, modern slavery particularly affects communities that are vulnerable due to their challenging economic circumstances, lack of education, societal traditions, and those unprotected by law. Modern slavery includes practices such as forced labor, bonded labor, human trafficking, descent-based slavery, child slavery and child labor, and forced and early marriage. Most of these are widespread across multiple stages of the fashion supply chain. While article Four of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that no one should be held in slavery,(1) an estimated 40.3 million people are subject to modern slavery across the world, 1.5 million of these in the developed economies,(2-7)
MODERN SLAVERY
