Perspective Chapter: Legal Definition of Modern Slavery

*Kahan Onur Arslan*

## **Abstract**

In this study, first of all, the basic elements of the slavery phenomenon in general and the paradigm of slavery were tried to be discussed in order to understand the slavery phenomenon correctly. Following these explanations, a definition proposal has been made for modern slavery, which has not yet been defined in any national or international law text. This defination includes four essential elements that must be included in the definition of modern slavery: control, continuity, voluntas and exploitation. Beside this defination On the axis of this definition, a brief critique of other slavery definitions in the literature has been made. The desired result with these discussions and explanations in the study is to present a generally accepted road map that can be applied in the fight against modern slavery.

**Keywords:** slavery, modern slavery, exploitation, human rights, elements of modern slavery

## **1. Introduction**

It cannot be said that the concept of modern slavery is a technical term accepted in terms of international law for the time being. Of course, this fact does not mean that the concept is not included in any legal document. For example, while the expressions of "today's forms of slavery" or "today's slavery practices" have been used frequently in the legal regulations in the United States for many years, the concept of "modern slavery" has started to be used in some regulations that have entered into force since 2015. Also, laws enacted in the UK in 2015 and in Australia in 2018 use the concept of "modern slavery". However, in order to express this phenomenon in both legal texts and scientific studies; although different concepts such as "human trafficking", "forced labor", "slavery-like practices", "global slavery" or "new slavery" are used, "modern slavery" is the most widely used concept [1, 2]. Therefore, while there is no consensus on the concept used to express this phenomenon, which I think is the last stage in the evolution of slavery (for now); it is not easy to find a satisfactory definition for international actors. However, in order to develop an effective action at the national, regional and global level in terms of combating modern slavery, first of all, a clear and widely accepted definition of modern slavery must be made. The effort to define modern slavery in this study basically aims to meet this requirement. However, as it is known, the issue of defining any phenomenon in social sciences is not an easy one. In this context, three basic problems that can be seen at first glance draw attention to the effort to make a reference

to modern slavery. Firstly, the question of whether modern slavery, embodied in many different practices, can be addressed with a single concept. Latter the possibility that many victims of modern slavery practices would be left out if the possible definition to be put forward was too narrow, for example, on the basis of purely proprietary powers, as in classical slavery. Third, there is the danger of diluting modern anti-slavery efforts if the possible definition is over-expanded to include, for example, violations of rights resulting from various forms of social injustice and/or poor working conditions, as the definition becomes blurred and vague, thus rendering the phenomenon meaningless.
