UN Secretary General António Guterres said that more than 40 million people around the world are subject to modern forms of slavery. His words are quoted on the organization's website.

“Women and girls make up 71 percent of this figure,” Guterres said. According to him, today slavery is manifested in the form of forced labor, including child, domestic bondage, human trafficking for the purpose of exploitation, forced marriage, forced recruitment of children in armed conflicts, as well as debt dependence.

Guterres added that most of the victims of slavery are the poor and marginalized members of society, racial and ethnic minorities, as well as indigenous peoples and migrants.

The UN Secretary General has called for joint efforts to eradicate this phenomenon, as it violates human rights.

Currently, slavery is officially prohibited in all states of the world. In Ethiopia, debt slavery formally existed before the 1977 revolution. The most recent ban on the ownership of slaves and the use of slave labor was introduced in Mauritania in July 1981.