Policy

Report: There Are Slaves in the Majority of Countries

Tens of millions of human beings treated like property

|

There are still slaves in the majority of countries across the world, according to a new report released Thursday by the NGO "Walk Free."

The Global Slavery Index 2013, the first major study of its kind, has found there are slaves in 162 countries, including the United States, Canada and Western European nations.

"What slavery is … what slavery's always been; It's about one person completely under the control of another person, and violence being used to maintain that control and the whole point of that control being exploitation," Kevin Bales, Walk Free index researcher and professor at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull, U.K., told CBSNews.com.

(H/T Charles WT)