By Max Fisher in Washing in Washington Post

( Shared By Tahir Mahmood)

Share of each country’s population that is enslaved. Click to enlarge. Data source: Walk Free Global Slavery Index. (Max Fisher/The Washington Post)

We think of slavery as a practice of the past, an image from Roman colonies or 18th-century American plantations, but the practice of enslaving human beings as property still exists. There are 29.8 million people living as slaves right now, according to a comprehensive new report  issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.

This is not some softened, by-modern-standards definition of slavery. These 30 million people are living as forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and, in all ways that matter, as pieces of property, chattel in the servitude of absolute ownership. Walk Free investigated 162 countries and found slaves in every single one. But the practice is far worse in some countries than others.

The country where you are most likely to be enslaved is Mauritania. Although this vast West African nation has tried three times to outlaw slavery within its borders, it remains so common that it is nearly normal. The report estimates that four percent of Mauritania is enslaved – one out of every 25 people. (The aid group SOS Slavery, using a broader definition of slavery, estimated several years ago that as  many as 20 percent of Mauritanians might be enslaved.)

The map at the top of this page shows almost every country in the world colored according to the share of its population that is enslaved. The rate of slavery is also alarmingly high in Haiti, in Pakistan and in India, the world’s second-most populous country. In all three, more than 1 percent of the population is estimated to live in slavery.

A few trends are immediately clear from the map up top. First, rich, developed countries tend to have by far the lowest rates of slavery. The report says that effective government policies, rule of law, political stability and development levels all make slavery less likely. The vulnerable are less vulnerable, those who would exploit them face higher penalties and greater risk of getting caught. A war, natural disaster or state collapse is less likely to force helpless children or adults into bondage. Another crucial factor in preventing slavery is discrimination. When society treats women, ethnic groups or religious minorities as less valuable or less worthy of protection, they are more likely to become slaves.

Then there are the worst-affected regions. Sub-Saharan Africa is a swath of red, with many countries having roughly 0.7 percent of the population enslaved — or one in every 140 people. The legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism are still playing out in the region; ethnic divisions and systems of economic exploitation engineered there during the colonial era are still, to some extent, in place. Slavery is also driven by extreme poverty, high levels of corruption and toleration of child “marriages” of young girls to adult men who pay their parents a “dowry.”

Two other bright red regions are Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Both are blighted particularly by sex trafficking, a practice that bears little resemblance to popular Western conceptions of prostitution. Women and men are coerced into participating, often starting at a very young age, and are completely reliant on their traffickers for not just their daily survival but basic life choices; they have no say in where they go or what they do and are physically prevented from leaving. International sex traffickers have long targeted these two regions, whose women and men are prized for their skin tones and appearance by Western patrons.

Here, to give you a different perspective of slavery’s scope, is a map of the world showing the number of slaves living in each country:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/17/this-map-shows-where-the-worlds-30-million-slaves-live-there-are-60000-in-the-u-s/

A very insightful analysis of evolution of Laws and why dis-respect of the law and order in Pakistan.( F. Sheikh)

In early history, communities developed their own customs and practices to maintain law and order. Each individual in the community would observe these rules and if anybody violated them, he would be punished by expulsion from the community. Since nobody wanted to lose the help and support of the community by showing any deviation, they preferred to follow the prescribed communal way of life.

With the emergence of state, a legal system was gradually established to maintain order and discipline. As socio-economic class difference increased in the society, the ruling classes were mostly exempted from punishment for committing crimes, while common people were punished severely even for minor offences. Rulers were not only regarded above the law but the ruler’s command was considered the law for the common people.

Around 1700BC, Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylonia established a legal system known as the Code of Hammurabi, covering several social, political and economic aspects of life. His laws were based on the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Since it was supposedly bestowed on him by Mardouk, an ancient god, the law was considered divine and unchangeable and Hammurabi was not held above the law. He carved his laws on stone tablets placed in the market where people could read them and become aware of them.

Another legal system emerged in the Greek city state of Athens in 624BC. Draco introduced a code of laws proposing severe punishment even for minor crime. Despite the severity, crime continued in the society and the term ‘Draconian’ was coined. It is used to describe harsh measures imposed by an autocratic government to crush any resistance against their rule.

The next lawmaker to emerge was Solon (d 594BC). Introducing legal reforms, he established the right of trial by a jury and the right of the accused to hire an advocate. Moreover, the judgment of court could now be challenged, These laws were inscribed on stone tablets and panels of wood and placed in the marketplace so that people could learn about their rights.

The legal system of the Roman Empire was comprehensive and covered nearly all social, political and commercial conflicts prevalent at the time; based on which the judgment was pronounced while the accused had full rights to defend himself. It created a class of lawyers who studied the legal system and appeared at the court to plead cases. Cicero, one of the famous lawyers used his outstanding rhetorical style to present legal arguments in court. Private property was fully protected by these laws, but being a patriarchal society, women were considered subordinate to men and denied full rights. Click link for full article;

http://www.dawn.com/news/1047771/past-present-laying-down-the-law

The article in Dawn newspaper discusses the restrictions in the Hadud ordinance and the efforts by some legislators in Sindh to pass more progressive legislation to ensure the rights of rape victims using DNA testing.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1048041/moral-case-for-dna-testing

Submitted by Syed Ehtisham

Like the vast majority of Christian religious leaders of his era, Martin Luther, the Father of the Protestant Reformation, met the definition of a “Constantinian” Christian, that is a Christian who espoused theological teachings that were tolerant of violence and accepted non-democratic, authoritarian and male-dominant practices. Those teachings represented the theological framework of the Christian church that became the state religion starting with the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early Fourth Century.

For the rest of the article click the link below.