This house believes that live-in servants are not a modern form of slavery.

I, Sarim Abbas, will be talking about live-in servants being slaves by

definition and the way they live, _____________________ will be talking about
______________________________________________, and _____________________
will be talking about ______________________________________________.
Equality and human dignity are the basic values underlying all human
rights, I quote a member of the UN on the 15 th session of the Geneva
Council. There is perhaps, no greater denial of these universally shared
values than treating human beings as mere chattels that can be owned,
controlled, exploited and enslaved. Yet, human beings across the world
still suffer this fate.
Respected judges, ladies and gentlemen.
Slave labour has been a part of civilization for much of history. In the
past, it was practiced openly and its legality wasnt much of a question.
Today, slavery is illegal in every country. Yet it persists, in secret,
exploiting the poor and the marginalized, and whats the most
unpleasant side of the story is that its being practiced, here right at
home and other, even developed countries, in the form of domestic
servitude, which means through having live-in servants. And the main
reason this continues, is because a broadly accepted definition of
slavery has been elusive, hence most households know little of what
they perpetrate.
A definition given by the ILO in 1930 shows clearly that having live-in
servants is equivalent to modern day slavery. It defines slavery as, all
work or service that is exacted from any person under the menace of any
penalty or under conditions which the person is not allowed to change.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, brings me to the gist of my argument, in
which now Ill be telling you exactly how the conditions these live-in
servants face can be equivalent to a form of slavery most governments
discount from their labor treaties.
On the 22nd of January 2010, Shazia Masih, a 12-year-old Pakistani girl
employed as a live-in domestic servant, was taken to the hospital in an
unconscious state where she died shortly thereafter.
Her murderer, advocate Nadeem Chaudhry, despite disallowing Shazia to
see her parents, despite keeping her in slave like conditions and
withholding her pay, is currently out on bail.
On 11 February 2010, Yasmin, a 15-year-old servant, was allegedly burnt
by her employers in Okara and died five days later in a hospital in Lahore.
According to Yasmins father, this was not the first instance of violence at
the hands of her employers.
In both these cases, you can see the severity of the violence committed
against both of these girls, and this is an eye opener to what the
conditions must be really like for most of the live-in servants around the
globe. And that is true, because it is not just here where such crimes are
acted out against live-in servants, an example being Isabel, a recently

escaped US servant, who was sent at 7 years of age to a family that would
often beat her with a spatula or toilet brush.
The torment these 3 girls have faced reinforces what I had said earlier.
Work and service was extracted from them under penalty if they faltered.
And according to the treaty, this enough should tell us that they were
equivalent to slaves, but it is their living conditions that further tell us that
their employment is actually a form of modern day slavery. And this
brings me to my second point.
Most people become live-in servants because of a need to get a wage
abroad, or to receive an education, or sometimes even parents send their
kids to wealthy families in the hopes they get food and bedding in
exchange for work. And being underprivileged and illiterate, and the fact
they cannot enter another field of work, makes their need even greater.
And sometimes, people even have themselves trafficked abroad to
become live-in servants, as is the case with over 1500 women in Nepal
annually. But all of these people, in what are too many cases to count, are
right to be disappointed, even outraged, because the living conditions
they encounter are substandard and inhumane.
Domestic workers living in domestic servitude frequently experience
physical, psychological and sometimes sexual abuse within their
employers household. Working conditions are also exploitative as those
who receive a salary are paid below the minimum wage, frequently work
without contracts, and are often required to work 16 to 18 hour days
without being allocated sufficient hours of rest.
Looking back at Isabel, when the other children went to school, Isabel
cooked and cleaned. Her bedroom was the garage, her bed the floor. Her
food - whatever the family didn't want, often spoiled or soured.
Mistreatment becomes part of their job, ladies and gentlemen, and they
have it from day one. And so many of their rights become violated: they
are declined proper bedding and made to sleep on the floor; they are
starved and given family leftovers, they are expected to clean and are
beaten at any mishap.
Does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights not say that no human is
to be subjected to torture or to degrading treatment, and that everyone
has a right to rest and pay? So if domestic servitude violates these rights,
then surely it has to be considered as slavery, as they are being deprived
of their rights against their own will?
The poor have lesser prospects does that give the rich the right to
exploit, abuse and plunder? Does that provide the justification for the
oppression inflicted? What is noble about abusing the weak when one is
powerful, and what satisfaction can possibly be gained? All of this is
coherent with the slavery practiced in America a 150 years ago.
So, to summarize, live-in servants can definitely be considered a modern
form of slavery because a) they, according to definition, have work

extracted from them under menace of penalty, and b) they are subjected
to horrific living conditions.
And I quote Gerrit Smith when I say, These poor wretches came to to
servitude, from which they sought to escape on the first occasion that was
offered, but were killed before it. I need say no more, to prove that
slavery is entirely unlike the servitude in the patriarchal families.