A century after the international community adopted the Slavery Convention, the formal abolition of slavery has not brought an end to human exploitation. The 1926 Slavery Convention represented an important milestone in international efforts to eliminate slavery. It established one of the earliest international legal frameworks specifically directed at abolishing slavery and the slave trade. Yet, one hundred years later, the United Nations is confronting an uncomfortable reality: millions of people remain trapped in conditions that deprive them of freedom, dignity and control over their own lives.
The persistence of these practices demonstrates the distance between international legal commitments and conditions experienced by vulnerable people around the world. The contemporary forms of exploitation are also different from the systems of legally recognised chattel slavery that dominated earlier periods. Forced labour, human trafficking, forced marriage, debt bondage and other slavery-like practices can operate through coercion, deception, threats, economic dependency and abuse of vulnerability. The result is a modern exploitation system that can remain hidden within households, workplaces, supply chains and criminal networks.
What Did the 1926 Slavery Convention Change?
The Slavery Convention was adopted in 1926 under the League of Nations and established an international commitment to suppress slavery and the slave trade. Its significance was historical as well as legal. At a time when slavery and related systems of exploitation remained entrenched in parts of the world, governments formally recognised the need for international cooperation against the practice.
A century later, the convention remains part of the international legal foundation for efforts to eliminate slavery. But subsequent human-rights instruments have expanded the international response to forms of exploitation that do not necessarily involve formal ownership of one person by another. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights established that no one should be held in slavery or servitude, while later treaties addressed forced labour, trafficking and slavery-like practices. The evolution of this framework reflects an important reality: exploitation can exist even when a person is not legally classified as someone’s property.
Why Does Slavery Still Exist After a Century of Prohibition?
The persistence of slavery-like practices is closely connected to vulnerability. Poverty, discrimination, conflict, displacement, irregular migration, lack of employment protections and unequal access to justice can increase exposure to exploitation. People who have limited legal protection or depend economically on employers, intermediaries or other powerful actors can face particular risks.
The International Labour Organization’s global estimates found that 49.6 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021. This included 27.6 million people in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriage. These figures do not describe a single global system controlled by one actor. They represent different forms of exploitation occurring in different circumstances and regions. That distinction matters because eliminating contemporary slavery requires more than simply prohibiting slavery in law. Governments must also identify exploitation, protect victims, investigate perpetrators and address the economic and social conditions that allow coercion to continue.
Forced Labour Has Become a Major Form of Modern Exploitation
Forced labour is one of the most widespread contemporary forms of slavery. It does not simply mean difficult employment, low wages or poor working conditions. International standards distinguish forced labour through the presence of coercion or the threat of a penalty where a person has not freely offered the work or service. The problem can occur in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, domestic work, mining, hospitality, commercial sexual exploitation and other sectors.
The ILO estimates that 27.6 million people were in forced labour in 2021. Most forced labour was found in the private economy, although state-imposed forced labour also accounted for millions of people. This creates a particular challenge for accountability because exploitation can be hidden behind apparently legitimate commercial relationships. A worker may be recruited through an employment agency, subcontractor or intermediary and then face threats, withheld wages, confiscated documents, restricted movement or other forms of coercion. The legal employment relationship can therefore conceal a fundamentally coercive reality.
Human Trafficking Has Adapted to the Modern Economy
Human trafficking has also evolved alongside changes in technology, migration and global commerce. Traffickers can exploit people through recruitment networks, fraudulent employment offers, debt arrangements and threats against victims or their families. Digital platforms can also be used to recruit, control and exploit vulnerable people. The contemporary trafficking economy can therefore operate across national borders while remaining difficult for authorities to identify.
The changing nature of trafficking also creates challenges for law enforcement. Criminal networks can move victims between jurisdictions, conceal financial transactions and exploit gaps between national legal systems. Technology has created additional avenues for exploitation while simultaneously providing new tools for detection and investigation.
Women and Children Face Particular Risks
Women and children are disproportionately affected by several forms of modern slavery. Women and girls represent a significant share of people subjected to forced labour and are particularly affected by forced commercial sexual exploitation. Children also remain vulnerable to forced labour and other forms of exploitation. The ILO’s estimates indicate that more than 3.3 million children were in forced labour in 2021.
Children face additional barriers to reporting exploitation. They may depend on the very adults responsible for their abuse, lack access to legal assistance and have limited ability to leave exploitative environments. Forced marriage presents another distinct form of coercion. It involves situations in which people are compelled to marry without their free and full consent and can involve threats, violence, economic dependency or other forms of pressure. The persistence of these practices demonstrates that modern slavery is not solely a labour-rights issue. It is also a fundamental human-rights concern involving bodily autonomy, personal liberty, equality and human dignity.
Modern Slavery Can Be Hidden Inside Global Supply Chains
One of the most difficult aspects of contemporary slavery is its connection to legitimate economic activity. Forced labour can occur at different stages of complex supply chains. A company may have several layers of contractors, suppliers and labour intermediaries between its headquarters and the workers producing goods or extracting raw materials. This can make responsibility difficult to establish.
Products can move through multiple jurisdictions before reaching consumers, while the workers involved in production may remain invisible to the final buyer. International efforts to address forced labour have therefore increasingly focused on corporate responsibility, supply-chain transparency and human-rights due diligence. Businesses cannot treat exploitation as solely a law-enforcement problem when commercial relationships can create or conceal the conditions in which forced labour occurs.
The Profit Motive Remains Central
Economic exploitation remains one of the strongest drivers of modern slavery. The ILO estimated in 2024 that illegal profits from forced labour amount to around US$236 billion annually. The scale of these profits demonstrates why legal prohibition alone has not eliminated the practice.
Where exploitation generates substantial financial returns and the likelihood of detection or punishment remains limited, criminal actors and unscrupulous businesses can continue to exploit vulnerable workers. This creates a direct accountability challenge. Effective action requires authorities to investigate not only individual traffickers but also the financial structures that allow exploitation to generate and conceal profits.
The State’s Responsibility Extends Beyond Criminalisation
Nearly every country has laws addressing slavery, trafficking or forced labour. But legislation is only one component of an effective response. Governments also have responsibilities to identify victims, provide access to justice, protect witnesses, investigate allegations and prosecute those responsible.
Victims should not be treated as criminals because traffickers forced them to participate in unlawful activities. The international human-rights framework therefore increasingly emphasises victim protection alongside criminal enforcement. A system that prosecutes traffickers while failing to protect victims can leave some of the most vulnerable people exposed to further exploitation.
International Law Has Developed, But Enforcement Remains Uneven
The legal framework surrounding slavery has expanded considerably since 1926. The 1956 Supplementary Convention addressed slavery-like practices including debt bondage, serfdom, certain forms of forced marriage and the exploitation of children. The ILO Forced Labour Convention and later international instruments further developed protections against forced labour and trafficking.
The United Nations Protocol against Trafficking in Persons also established an important international framework for preventing trafficking, protecting victims and prosecuting traffickers. Yet legal standards are only effective when translated into national enforcement. Differences in investigative capacity, labour inspection, judicial resources and victim-protection systems can produce major gaps between international commitments and practical protection.
Why the 2026 Centenary Matters
The centenary of the Slavery Convention provides an opportunity to assess both progress and unfinished work. The world of 2026 is fundamentally different from the world of 1926. Slavery is no longer broadly recognised as a lawful institution, and international human-rights law has established clear prohibitions against slavery, servitude, trafficking and forced labour. But exploitation has not disappeared.
Instead, it has adapted to economic and technological change. Trafficking networks can operate internationally. Forced labour can become embedded within subcontracting arrangements. Digital platforms can facilitate recruitment and exploitation. People displaced by conflict or economic crisis can become targets for traffickers. The challenge for governments is therefore not simply to repeat the promise made in 1926, but to apply it to forms of exploitation that have evolved over the past century.
The Human Cost Extends Beyond the Workplace
The consequences of modern slavery extend well beyond lost wages. People subjected to forced labour or trafficking can experience physical and psychological abuse, restrictions on movement, separation from families and long-term economic insecurity. Children can lose access to education. Migrant workers can become trapped by debts or threats. Victims of forced marriage can lose control over fundamental decisions concerning their own lives.
These harms can continue even after a person escapes. Survivors may require medical care, legal assistance, housing, financial support and protection from retaliation. For this reason, a human-rights response cannot end when a trafficker is arrested.
Accountability Must Reach the Networks Behind Exploitation
One of the central questions for the next stage of international action is whether enforcement can move beyond individual perpetrators. Trafficking frequently involves recruiters, transporters, intermediaries, employers, financial facilitators and other participants. Investigating the entire network can be more difficult than identifying an individual offender.
Financial investigations are particularly important because modern slavery generates substantial illicit profits. Following money can help authorities identify beneficiaries, uncover connected criminal networks and disrupt the economic incentives behind exploitation. Businesses also have a role in identifying forced labour risks within their supply chains and responding when abuses are discovered. Accountability therefore requires cooperation between governments, law-enforcement agencies, labour authorities, businesses, civil society organisations and survivors.
Survivors Must Remain at the Centre of the Response
Anti-slavery policies can become focused on statistics, prosecutions and legislation while overlooking the people affected. Survivors require more than recognition that a violation occurred. They need access to protection, healthcare, legal remedies, compensation where available and safe opportunities to rebuild their lives.
Victim participation can also improve investigations. Survivors often possess information about recruitment methods, places of exploitation, intermediaries and other perpetrators that authorities may not otherwise obtain. Protecting survivors from retaliation is therefore both a human-rights obligation and an important component of effective enforcement.
The Road Ahead
A century after the Slavery Convention, the international prohibition of slavery is firmly established. The remaining challenge is ensuring that this legal principle becomes a lived reality for people vulnerable to forced labour, trafficking, forced marriage and other slavery-like practices. The persistence of an estimated 49.6 million people in modern slavery demonstrates the scale of the unfinished task.
The next phase requires stronger implementation rather than another declaration of principle. Governments need effective labour inspection, victim-centred justice systems, cross-border cooperation and meaningful enforcement against trafficking networks. Businesses need stronger mechanisms for identifying and addressing forced-labour risks in their supply chains. International institutions need sustained resources to monitor abuses and support affected communities. Most importantly, people subjected to exploitation must be treated as rights-holders rather than simply as evidence in criminal investigations.
The centenary of the Slavery Convention is therefore both a historical milestone and a reminder of an unfinished human-rights obligation. A century ago, governments formally committed themselves to ending slavery. A century later, millions of people remain trapped in conditions that deny them freedom. The central question for the years ahead is not whether the world has laws against slavery. It is whether those laws will be enforced strongly enough to ensure that freedom exists in practice as well as in principle.