Dignity and Freedom for All

Slavery, often thought of as a practice of the past, continues to ravage the world today.?Shockingly, an estimated 40.3 million people are still living and working as slaves, a number that eclipses any other time in history – even during the tragedy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. ?Of these, one in four are children and three in four are women and girls. Racial and ethnic minorities, Indigenous peoples, refugees and migrants are at highest risk, according to the United Nations. Today, forced labor, domestic servitude, trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation — including sexual exploitation, forced marriage, child labor—are contemporary manifestations of endemic slavery.

It’s an issue that Mette Hoffmann Meyer, CEO of THE WHY FOUNDATION and executive producer of the WHY SLAVERY? film series, felt was necessary to bring to a larger audience. She told us, “The most shocking thing is the systemic nature of slavery – how widespread it is and how accepted it has become. Once you’ve seen these films, you can’t not think about these people.”

The aim of the WHY SLAVERY? series can be succinctly captured by the words of 18th century slave abolitionist William Wilberforce: “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Beginning tomorrow, December 10, on International Human Rights Day, a day when we commemorate the dignity and rights of all people, all five WHY SLAVERY? films will be available to stream on YouTube and on the PBS app. The series also will be broadcast on television this month and next on GBH WORLD’s Doc World, starting December 12 on Sundays at 10/9c.

The documentaries bring viewers into homes and factories from Poland to Hungary, Iraq and North Korea exposing governments, organizations, agencies and individuals continuing the cycle of slavery. I Was a Yazidi Slave tells the story of two Yazidi women, Shirin and Lewiza, who were enslaved, tortured and systemically raped by ISIS fighters in northern Iraq. They escaped to Germany with the assistance of a renowned trauma expert. Their journeys to recovery ask how a survivor of unthinkable sexual violence can find justice and a path to rehabilitation. A Woman Captured chronicles the life of Marish, a housekeeper in Hungary, who toils unpaid seven days a week in exchange for meals, cigarettes and a couch to sleep on. It is a raw and intimate portrayal of the psychology behind enslavement. Although the film is an evocative study of a woman so debased and disregarded that she has lost sight of her own life, it also offers hope by capturing the pure joy that can be found in living life as a free person. Selling Children tells the story of vulnerable children bought and sold in India, exposing the ways in which poverty, illiteracy and corruption conspire to provide a breeding ground for child trafficking in the world’s largest democracy. North Korea’s Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes tells the story of North Koreans sent abroad with the promise of payment and honor, only to find themselves under constant surveillance and working in harsh conditions with their wages transferred to the government. Maid in Hell exposes the inner workings of the Middle East’s Kafala System, a set of laws governing migrant labor binding them to their employers. The film follows Mary Kibwana, who worked as a maid in Jordan but returned to Kenya with 70% of her body burned, a reality faced by thousands of women each day.

While these films focus attention internationally, it is important to note that there are approximately 403,000 people trafficked into slavery into and within the United States.

It is immensely horrifying, and yet critical that we take the time to learn more about how widespread slavery is and how rampant these human rights abuses are.?As James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” By telling these stories, a shared awareness can hopefully help bring this issue to the forefront of the global conversation and lead to the end of the degradation and inhumanity of modern slavery.

Beginning Friday, Dec. 10 on Human Rights Day, watch all five Doc World: WHY SLAVERY? films on YouTube and the PBS app. The series will also be on television on GBH WORLD starting December 12 on Sundays at 10/9c.