Our Work
Persons with Disabilities and the Slave Trade
Professors Michael Stein and Janet Lord discuss opportunities for the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to address critical gaps
Around the world, persons with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by the slave trade and other slavery crimes. Photo credit: U.S. Air Force by Airman 1st Class Kyle Cope
Creative Commons License BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia
As HPOD's Executive Director, Professor Michael Ashley Stein, alongside HPOD Senior Associate, Professor Janet E. Lord; Director of Advocacy Initiatives, Hezzy Smith; and Annual Fellow, Alex Green, wrote this summer for Just Security, it's past time for the International Criminal Court to recognize how the slave trade affects persons with disabilities. For too long, international criminal legal protections and enforcement mechanisms have failed to adequately recognize and account for the unique and exacberated forms of slavery crimes against persons with disabilities.
Around the world, persons with disabilities face many modern forms of enslavement, from forced labor and begging to sexual exploitation and imprisonment by caregivers. That said, one look no farther than the United States.1 Take, for example, Christopher Smith, a black man with intellectual disabilities, who for five years was forced to work 100 hours per week at a South Carolina restaurant without pay, all the while facing verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his employer. As another example, for more than 20 years a doctor of social work and a licensed nurse in Kansas operated an unlicensed residential care facility for persons with mental illness where they forced victims to perform nude manual labor and record videos of sex acts, while also stealing Social Security benefits and fraudulently billing Medicare.2 More sophisticated syndicates have also targeted persons with disabilities for economic exploitation, such as an Iowa turkey processing plant that contracted with a state institution in Texas to send several dozen men with intellectual disabilities to spend decades working long hours for meager pay, living in squalor in a dilapidated schoolhouse, and enduring verbal and physical abuse by their supervisors.3
While some of these crimes are prosecuted through national court systems, international criminal law can also play an important role in promoting accountability for grave crimes, including the crime of the slave trade. Following advocacy from States, civil society, and legal commentators, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court invited public comments on a new policy on slavery crimes that is “survivor-centred, trauma-informed and gender-competent.” As part of that process, HPOD and the University of Baltimore's Center for International and Comparative Law urged the Prosecutor to address critical gaps in international criminal law regarding slavery crimes and persons with disabilities.
To help break down the opportunities and challenges for strengthening protections for persons with disabilities against slavery crimes, Professors Stein and Lord spoke with Paras Shah on the Just Security podcast.
Footnotes
2 United States v. Kaufman, 546 F.3d 1242 (10th Cir. 2008)
3 E.E.O.C. v. Hill County Farms, 899 F. Supp. 2d 827 (S.D. Ia. 2012)
