UN Resolution Condemns Slavery, Ignores Modern Perpetrators
The United Nations has passed a resolution declaring slavery the gravest crime against humanity. This development, covered by outlets like Al Jazeera, highlights an apparent global consensus against forced labor. However, typical mainstream reporting often stops short of examining the deep structural complicity of powerful nations and corporations in perpetuating modern forms of slavery. What
mainstream coverage omits is the active role of Western states in enabling systems that profit from what amounts to modern slavery. The CNN Money headline from 2017, 'Over $150 billion generated from forced labor', while acknowledging the scale, rarely connects this profit to specific corporate entities or government policies. The focus tends to be on 'trafficking' or 'criminal networks,'
effectively externalizing the problem. However, the United States, for example, maintains a 62-year embargo against Cuba, a policy that actively creates conditions for economic hardship and forced migration, often pushing individuals into exploitative labor situations. This systemic pressure is rarely acknowledged as a contributing factor to the very issue the UN purports to address. This
resolution, dated March 31, 2026, ironically coincides with decades of documented labor exploitation in global supply chains servicing Western markets. For instance, the US Tariff Act of 1930, section 307, prohibits the importation of goods made with forced labor, yet enforcement has historically been lax. The US Department of Labor itself has identified goods from countries like China and India