Google’s Charitable Giving Shines Light on Modern-Day Slavery

Brick workers rescued from slavery in China

Millions of men, women, and children around the world are being sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay, their very lives at the “mercy” of those who employ—or own—them. This exploitation may not always be called slavery, but the harsh conditions, injustices, and indignities are the same. Nongovernmental organizations such as International Justice Mission, Anti-Slavery International, and the CNN Freedom Project are working to end modern-day slavery, or human trafficking. Now the movement is picking up momentum thanks to a huge charitable donation from the high tech company Google. Google announced in December the largest-ever charitable donation—$11.5 billion—to support the new initiatives that will include:

  • rescuing thousands of people trapped in forced labor;
  • protecting millions more so they are never enslaved to begin with, through strengthened law enforcement and improved antitrafficking legislation;
  • launching a massive advocacy and awareness campaign;
  • equipping those who are freed from forced labor to build a secure livelihood for themselves; and
  • motivating policymakers, especially in the United States, to provide support to rescue and antitrafficking efforts overseas.

The International Labor Organization estimates that 126 million children worldwide are engaged in work that harms their health and well-being. More children, women, and men are held in slavery today than over the course of the centuries-long transatlantic slave trade. Slavery is prohibited by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other United Nations conventions and most countries where it occurs have banned the practice. Nevertheless, the traffic in human beings is generating annual profits of more than $32 billion, according to the UN.

It can be difficult to tell if a particular product has or has not been produced using slave labor. A component of a product—the cotton in a T-shirt, say—may be a result of human trafficking. Because of globalization, goods produced by oppressed slave laborers find their way into the supply chain, making the injustice of slavery everyone’s responsibility.

Image credit: Imaginechina via AP Images

Related Links

  • Google.org, IJM, and NGO Coalitions Launch Historic Anti-Slavery Initiatives
    Read about the ground-breaking charitable donation by the tech giant to fund initiatives to end modern-day slavery.
    (Source: International Justice Mission; accessed December 30, 2011)
  • Injustice Today
    Learn about the work of IJM, the human rights agency devoted to rescuing victims of slavery and other forms of violent oppression that was selected by Google to lead the collaborative effort it is funding.
    (Source: International Justice Mission; accessed December 30, 2011)
  • Slavery Today
    Explore the website of a leading organization working to end modern-day slavery; includes summaries of issues from child labor to trafficking to slavery and what we buy.
    (Source: Anti-Slavery International; accessed December 30, 2011)
  • Products of Slavery
    View this interactive world map created by Anti-Slavery International to find out whether products you buy may have been produced using slave labor.
    (Source: Anti-Slavery International; accessed December 30, 2011)
  • National Human Trafficking Resource Center
    The Polaris Project, a nongovernmental organization working exclusively on the issue of human trafficking, provides a national, toll-free hotline, available 24/7.
    (Source: Polaris Project; accessed December 30, 2011)
  • No, It’s Not “Just Like Slavery”
    This article takes a contrarian view on “modern slavery,” contending that it is “more fiction than fact.”
    (Source: Spiked!, August 3, 2015)

27 Comments

  1. Elizabeth Urbieta says:

    crazy

  2. toniesha says:

    it was crazzzzy 🙁

  3. toniesha says:

    how could they do that to lil kids and men thets not right 🙁 <3 😮

  4. leann says:

    thats just really discusting how people treat others and i dont think many other people like how they are treated………..

  5. Ryan says:

    lol wow!!!

  6. Greg says:

    ugh,look at they faces

  7. Anonymous says:

    thats bs that is so wrong they cant do that slaverly been over fam go up for once in yo life foreal………KIDS

  8. Nick says:

    :/…

  9. Cristain says:

    Eww!!! look at his arm

    • ms_vnce says:

      these people are hurting and ur saying ‘ewww’ how dare you. I hope you feel what they are feeling. You sick person

    • Anonymous says:

      Those people did not do that to themselves, their owners did that. How could u say eww!!!!!!

  10. Erica Johnson says:

    I thank this was a great way for people yo learn more about how slavery was ended and more

  11. Anonymous says:

    its so sad to know that some places arent as advanced as they should be. we should be grateful for what we have.

  12. Alphredough Gunn says:

    I blame Obama for modern day slavery.

  13. anonymous says:

    I can’t believe this is still
    happening!It should be banned in every country!=(

  14. Anonymous says:

    i don’t believe it either is rediculous and sick

  15. blah blah blah blah says:

    there is nothing i want to say

  16. ms_vnce says:

    omg all these mean comments someone should do something…. Whyyyy!!!!

  17. ms_vnce says:

    HELP THESE PEOPLE OR IM SUING IM A LAYWER ;[

  18. ms_vnce says:

    Millions of men, women, and children around the world are being sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay, their very lives at the “mercy” of those who employ—or own—them. This exploitation may not always be called slavery, but the harsh conditions, injustices, and indignities are the same. Nongovernmental organizations such as International Justice Mission, Anti-Slavery International, and

  19. yall stupid. says:

    well, lets hope 4 romney.

  20. fhjidfhg says:

    wow

    • Moh says:

      If chosen tghthous create our realities and we choose which thought to listen to, then those 17 killed and their killers somehow interacted to create the actions that led to them leaving the physical relm. I would assume there were other tghthous that could have taken them another place or time that they did not listen to. From our point of view, in the reality we create, we see them, are impacted, feel the pain and must, maybe by a big deep breath and the gratitude that follow forgive them, and go on in this world. From their wounded emotional anatomy, they chose the series of tghthous and decisions that created the nightmare that finally killed them. The playing field they were on was removed from the bigger field of play on which we all exist. Maybe the gratiude and the forgivness that this pain taps can help others create a reality through choices that won’t include them in similar events. Maybe useful in the language would be to listen to the whispers before they become screams and shouts . Please note that in the above there is no thought of right, wrong, good or bad just tghthous chosen from wounded perspectives on both sides. So in summary, you don’t have to give it up it’s already changed the world of many and continues to grow daily KEEP THE FAITH RIGGS even without speaking and writing the world around you is being modified by what you think.

  21. johnny garcia says:

    blew my mind.