Modern day slavery is prevalent throughout the world even though it goes by different names, a human rights activist has clarified in light of a new worldwide report.

“Modern day slavery has many faces,” said Dr. Ana Steele told CNA, explaining that the United Nations’ definition includes “the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sɛҳuąƖ exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

Regardless of what form it takes, the Dalit Freedom Network USA and Dalit Freedom Network UK president explained, “it is incuмbent on each one of us to combat modern day slavery wherever it exists.”

Her comments come in the wake of the release of the 2013 Global Slavery Index which detailed the various kinds of modern-day slavery as well as countries with the highest density.

The report stated that “modern slavery takes many forms, and is known by many names: slavery, forced labour or human trafficking,” and included these different forms in its study of slavery around the world.

Conducted by the Walk Free Foundation, the study found that worldwide there are 29.8 million persons held in modern-day slavery while researching the countries with the highest proportions of its people living in slave-like conditions.

Over three quarters of the victims are found in just ten countries – India, China, Pakistan Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, Thailand, D.R. Congo, Burma, and Bangladesh – with India containing nearly 14 million exploited people.

Mauritania in West Africa has the highest rate of slavery with nearly four percent of its population subjected to some form slavery.

Dr. Steele, whose work focuses on helping Dalit and Adivasi caste-members in India escape slavery and extreme poverty, explained that modern slavery is not only a human rights concern, but a development concern as well.

“Slavery destroys lives and destroyed lives create a nation in crisis,” she said.

In order to end the toleration of slavery, nations must come together in “a concerted global effort” to do so.

The surest ways of eliminating slavery is the use of preventative measures which “seek to combat the push factors that lead to enslavement” as well as those that “aim to change a life and ultimately change a nation.”

“Our efforts need to include preventing the next generation of victims,” and should include “programs such as education, healthcare, economic security building, and social justice advocacy and intervention that serve the most marginalized and at-risk populations,” she said.

Individuals can aid the fight against human trafficking “by committing to stay informed and following organizations that are at the vanguard of anti-slavery work,” helping with “restoration efforts underway for victims of modern day slavery,” and “most importantly, by supporting prevention.”

The Global Slavery Index used research conducted over a period of 10 years and was compiled by a team of four authors and drew from support of 22 experts. Although this is the first, the aim is to conduct a yearly report on global slavery.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/human-trafficking-has-many-faces-human-rights-expert-says/

 New York's civil rights leaders on Saturday angrily decried the city's brewing "shop-and-frisk" scandal, in which two major retailers stand accused of profiling black shoppers who say they were detained by police after buying luxury items.

"We've gone from stop-and-frisk to shop-and-frisk," said Reverend Al Sharpton, president of National Action Network, alluding to a police crime-fighting tactic that critics say amounts to racial profiling.

A Network representative is set to meet next week with Mark Lee, the chief executive of Barneys New York, following allegations from two black shoppers that they were detained by New York police and accused of fraud after buying luxury items at Barneys.

In a third such allegation made this week, actor Rob Brown of HBO's "Treme" told the New York Daily News on Friday that he had been "paraded" through a midtown Mahattan Macy's in handcuffs in June, and held for an hour, after purchasing a $1,350 gold Movado watch for his mother.

Brown said he came forward after reading news accounts of others who had had similar experiences at Barneys.

Brown told the newspaper he "implored" cops to check his ID, but "they kept telling me, ‘Your card is fake. You're going to jail.'"

Retailer Barneys New York publicly apologized this week, and Macy's Inc said late on Friday that it is investigating Brown's allegations.

Police officials have said that grand larceny - which includes shoplifting and credit card fraud - are top priorities in midtown Manhattan's busy retail districts. An NYPD spokesman was not immediately available to comment on Saturday.

Grand larceny accounts for more than 75 percent of all crime in the precincts that cover the two retailers, according to New York Police Department crime statistics.

Brooklyn nursing student Kayla Phillips, 21, said this week that she was surrounded by four undercover police officers in February after leaving Barneys with a $2,500 Celine handbag she had purchased. She plans to sue, said her lawyer Kareem Vessup.

And Trayon Christian, 19, said he was detained for two hours and questioned by New York police in April after buying a $349 Ferragamo belt at Barneys.

Christian filed a lawsuit against the store and the NYPD this week, court records show. Brown filed a similar lawsuit against Macy's on Friday, according to the Daily News.

Barneys posted an apology on its Facebook page late on Thursday and said it was hiring civil rights attorney Michael Yaki of San Francisco, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to review the store's practices and procedures.

At a weekly gathering at the Network headquarters on Saturday, Sharpton said racially profiling shoppers is intolerable.

"We are not going to live in a town where our money is considered suspect and everybody else's money is respected," he said.

Neither Brown nor his attorney returned calls for comment Saturday.

In 2005, Macy's paid $600,000 to settle similar allegations that many of the chain's New York stores had targeted blacks and Latinos for particular scrutiny of theft, according to the New York Attorney General's office.

Grand larceny has risen 31.6 percent over the last two years in the NYPD's Midtown North precinct, which includes Macy's flagship store in Herald Square. It is up nearly 4 percent in the Upper East Side's 19th precinct, which includes Barneys New York.

http://news.yahoo.com/macys-joins-barneys-brewing-nyc-shop-frisk-scandal-174204622--finance.html