Human Trafficking and Genocide: Exploring the Connection

• In Event: Human Rights Violations in Armed Conflict

Abstract

According to the latest estimates from the International Labor Organization, some 50 million persons exist in contemporary forms of slavery, from debt bondage in a variety of industries, to sex trafficking, to child soldiers to forced marriage. At the same time, when we look at the arc of the past half-century, we note the ongoing presence of crimes against humanity, particularly genocide. Although the United Nations was founded on the premise of “never again,” and to help steer humanity away from ethnic cleansing, we note the continued presence of genocide again and again, from the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot in the 1970s, to the cleansing of Rwandans in the 1990s, to the slaughter of Uyghurs and the Rohingya today.

To what extent are genocide and enslavement connected? A cursory review of the US Trafficking in Persons report suggests a correlation between those societies that are post-genocidal and the high prevalence of contemporary forms of slavery. And yet, scholarship has not pursued the connection in depth. We know that genocidal conflict leads to the growth of vulnerable populations, but precisely how does that translate into contemporary slavery? And what does that slavery look like over time, in terms of its prevalence, type, and impact on the local and global economy?

This paper explores extent to which genocide and contemporary forms of slavery are connected. We explore three case studies in depth—Rwanda, Sudan, and Myanmar, noting trends over time between the outbreak of violence leading eventually to genocide, and subsequent trends in different levels of contemporary forms of slavery. We note that conflict tends to lead to the collapse of the rule of law, the displacement of vulnerable populations, and the ease of perpetrators to enslave the vulnerable. We also explore a typology of post-genocidal enslavement, seeking to further name and address the intersection between these two types of crimes against humanity.

Authors

• Mia Bouillonnec

• Monti Narayan Datta, University of Richmond