Country Foundations

Freedom from slavery and forced labour

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 4. In the US Constitution: 13th Amendment.

Constitutions declaring it
70 / 158
US declares it
100%
US practices it
77%

Does declaring it change anything?

Distribution of practiced scores, split by whether the constitution declares the right. If the two distributions look alike, the words on the page are not doing much work on their own.

Constitutions that declare it (70)
0100
Constitutions that are silent (48)
0100

Mean practiced score: 70% where declared, versus 73% where silent.

What the text actually says

Passages tagged with this topic, from the Constitute Project.

United States
Amendment XIII

Amendment XIII Section 1 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2 Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

South Africa
13. Slavery, servitude and forced labour

13. Slavery, servitude and forced labour No one may be subjected to slavery, servitude or forced labour.

Row 5

Row 5 Column 1. Section number 13 Column 2. Section title Slavery, servitude and forced labour Column 3. Extent to which the right is non-derogable With respect to slavery and servitude

Country by country

CountryDeclaredPracticed
Argentina100%76%
Bangladesh100%67%
Bolivia100%79%
Bosnia and Herzegovina100%74%
Bulgaria100%87%
Central African Republic100%61%
Chad100%54%
Chile100%73%
Colombia100%68%
Costa Rica100%89%
Croatia100%72%
Democratic Republic of the Congo100%60%
Dominican Republic100%72%
Eritrea100%20%
Eswatini100%41%
Ethiopia100%64%
Guatemala100%62%
Guinea100%56%
Iceland100%79%
Indonesia100%71%
Iraq100%63%
Ivory Coast100%79%
Kenya100%79%
Latvia100%80%
Liberia100%83%
Lithuania100%77%
Malawi100%74%
Mauritania100%44%
Mongolia100%77%
Nicaragua100%70%
Niger100%78%
Nigeria100%78%
North Macedonia100%80%
Norway100%78%
Pakistan100%64%
Peru100%77%
Romania100%74%
Russia100%64%
Seychelles100%77%
Sierra Leone100%76%
Singapore100%53%
Slovenia100%83%
South Africa100%71%
Suriname100%79%
Timor-Leste100%78%
Trinidad and Tobago100%73%
Türkiye100%70%
Uganda100%62%
Ukraine100%75%
United States of America100%77%
Vanuatu100%77%
Venezuela100%76%
Zimbabwe100%77%
Afghanistan75%34%
Albania75%87%
Armenia75%84%
Barbados75%69%
Belarus75%69%
Cyprus75%68%
Ghana75%73%