Contemporary Slavery in the Spotlight - Interview with Professor Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick

January has been named “Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month” in an effort to shine a spotlight on the global problem. CEU’s Human Rights Initiative (HRSI) marked the occasion with a joint talk by Professor Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy, and Judit Geller, lawyer at the European Roma Rights Centre. The CEU Weekly met with Professor Choi-Fitzpatrick after the talk to discuss contemporary slavery and trafficking, a situation which affects as many as 30 million people worldwide.

When asked why slavery still persists, Professor Choi-Fitzpatrick replies: “We have slavery today for several reasons: people on the move looking for better lives, there is a demand in the world economy for cheap labor and cheap sex.” But his research suggests a second reason behind slavery,  connected to deeper cultural practices like chattel slavery (actually owning people) and bonded labor. In areas where cultural practices persist, it can be difficult to pass and enforce laws, Choi-Fitzpatrick says. Regarding the number of people living in slavery he answers that “estimates of how many people are held in slavery are difficult to come by because it is a hidden population. We do not always know how people leave and it is difficult to get a grasp on where people actually live. I tend to go with a series of estimates that are generally clustered around the 30 million mark.”

Contemporary slavery became an issue after 1989 when the Cold War ended and opened borders allowed for individuals to move with greater ease either through their own will or under pressure. This also points to the fact that “contemporary slavery is happening everywhere, all over the world, all the time and that has been true in all of recorded history. This is a very, very old form of exploitation,” as Professor Choi-Fitzpatrick explains. While the reasons for, and forms of slavery, in different countries and regions vary, “whether we are talking about people who have never left their communities or who have been trafficked to work in contemporary slavery, the types of exploitations they face are relatively stable. The big three are agriculture, prostitution and domestic work,” says Professor Choi-Fitzpatrick. 

Throughout the early 1990s, awareness of the problem increased and eventually culminated in the UN’s Palermo Protocols in 2000. Yet, trafficking is only one of the issues that the Palermo Protocol addresses. In addition, we have to keep in mind that just because there are international protocols, this does not mean that the appropriate laws are necessarily enforced on the national or local level. Looking at current campaigns, both offline and online, it is apparent that trafficking, especially for sex, receives much more public attention than slavery. One of the reasons, Professor Choi-Fitzpatrick says is “the fact that individuals trafficked across the border and held against their will in a brothel is an easier story for a newspaper to tell.”

Discussing the course “Human Trafficking and Contemporary Slavery” he is currently teaching to CEU students from different

departments, Professor Choi-Fitzpatrick concludes that for him, one of the important concerns in the struggle against slavery will be a transition from a purely legal approach to the problem towards a human rights approach that pays more attention to the needs of victims and survivors. Under the existing conditions, most victims of slavery and trafficking are only able to remain in their current localities if they cooperate extensively with the authorities and often need to leave to their country of departure afterwards. Yet, it is important to keep in mind that often people have left for very personal reasons and may not want to return home despite their harrowing experiences abroad. Regarding what individuals such as the CEU students can do, Choi-Fitzpatrick emphasizes that “it is important for individuals to educate themselves in what the problem is and to raise awareness but it is also important to pressure governments to pass and enforce laws and corporations to clean up their supply chains.”

If you are interested in learning more about slavery and trafficking, good resources can be found online. One of them is www.slaveryfootprint.org where you can track the amount of slave labor involved in the production of your everyday items. Other useful websites are www.ungift.org (Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking) and www.freetheslaves.net (Free the Slaves). Choi-Fitzpatrick’s work, including a new project involving interviews with contemporary slaveholders, can be found at www.austinchoifitzpatrick.com.

Julia Michalsky, Germany, MA History

Photos credit: CEU/Daniel Vegel