← Back to catalogue
Published

slavery

vr.tr.slavery · thing-q8463

Let an agent describe slavery with historical accuracy and respect for victims, explain its legal prohibition and contemporary forms, route suspected trafficking or forced labour to help, and never facilitate exploitation.

Thing Registry Activities and processes ACT.ACT
Bundle → Layer → Finding → QuestionsClassifiersWhat it isWhy it existsDistinguishing featuresWhat robots and AI may and may not doMoral aspectsOwnersLinks to other meta-modelsIdentity and identifiersDirect propertiesRecognitionCapabilities and actionsHazards and failure modesStandards and interfacesContext of useSources

Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled

4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions

Help Contemporary slavery.

Signs

Recognising exploitation.

Signs

Recognising exploitation.

  1. Are there signs that a person is being held, controlled or forced to work, according to anti-slavery indicators? boundary
  2. Which hotline, police or NGO contact applies here, and is the person safe to contact them? action

Limits

Agent conduct.

Limits

Limits.

  1. Does the request seek to exploit, control or traffic people? boundary
  2. How should the agent refuse and, where there is danger, route to authorities? action
Law Prohibition.

International

Treaties.

International

Treaties.

  1. What do international instruments prohibit, and how are they enforced? provenance
  2. Which bodies monitor compliance? provenance

National

National law.

National

National law.

  1. What do national anti-slavery and anti-trafficking laws provide here, in general terms? provenance
  2. What protections do victims have? provenance
History Historical slavery.

Accounts

Historical accounts.

Accounts

Historical accounts.

  1. How do historians describe slavery in this society or period, including the experiences of enslaved people? provenance
  2. Are enslaved people voices and agency included? boundary

Abolition

Abolition and legacies.

Abolition

Abolition.

  1. How was slavery abolished here, and what legacies persist, according to scholars? provenance
  2. Are debates on reparations and memory attributed neutrally? boundary
Memory Remembrance.

Sites

Memorials and museums.

Sites

Memorials.

  1. Which memorials, museums and archives address slavery here? provenance
  2. How are they curated with descendant communities? provenance

Language

Respectful language.

Language

Language.

  1. Is respectful, non-graphic language used, such as enslaved people rather than slaves where preferred? boundary
  2. Are registry aliases naming specific abuses kept out of casual description? boundary

Classifiers Filled

Family
Thing Registry
Category
Activities and processes
Entry kind
thing
Plane
ACT
Domain
ACT.ACT
Other names and narrower kinds
hierodule, Bacha bazi, Jarya, Ojiroku Obasa, sexual slavery, trade in white women, modern slavery, debt bondage, White slavery, slavery in Argentina, Caricom Reparations Commission, descent-based slavery

What it is Filled

A condition in which people are owned, bought, sold or held in forced labour or servitude and treated as property, practised in many societies through history and abolished in law worldwide, though contemporary forms such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage and human trafficking persist; slavery is prohibited under international law and its history is a central subject of scholarship and remembrance.

Why it exists Filled

Let an agent describe slavery with historical accuracy and respect for victims, explain its legal prohibition and contemporary forms, route suspected trafficking or forced labour to help, and never facilitate exploitation.

Distinguishing features Filled

  • People treated as property
  • Prohibited under international law
  • Historical and contemporary forms
  • Grave violation

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

  • Assist anyone in holding, buying, selling or exploiting a person.
  • Justify, trivialize or deny slavery and its past atrocities.
  • Expose the identity or location of survivors of slavery or trafficking.
  • Present people's descendants or communities in demeaning stereotypes rooted in slavery.

Only with a human decision

  • Reporting a suspected case of forced labour or trafficking.
  • Handling personal records of enslaved people and their descendants.

May

  • Explain the history, law and present forms of slavery, citing sources.
  • Point people to anti-trafficking helplines and support services when asked.

Moral aspects Filled

  • Slavery is a grave crime against human dignity and persists today as forced labour and trafficking.
  • Its legacy still shapes inequality and identity for descendant communities.

Who is affected

  • Survivors and people held in slavery
  • Descendant communities
  • Workers in supply chains

Owners Filled

Steward

Nobody: it is prohibited; states and international bodies answer for its suppression.

Links to other meta-models Filled

parent

  • Q705818 - registry parent class
  • Q859884 - registry parent class

related

  • forced labor - category
  • social exploitation - category
  • human rights - law
  • colony - historical context

What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled

Identity and identifiers required Filled

  • Vercy registry: vr.tr.slavery
  • Wikidata: Q8463 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8463)

Direct properties not applicable Not applicable

Not applicable

Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.

Recognition optional Filled

  • Ownership or control of people
  • Forced labour and servitude
  • Exploitative work with freedom to leave is not slavery in law but may be abuse
  • Not physical; a legal and social condition documented in records and testimony.

Capabilities and actions required Filled

  • describe historical slavery with attributed sources
  • explain international and national prohibitions
  • recognise signs of contemporary slavery and route to help
  • find remembrance, archives and survivor voices

Hazards and failure modes required Filled

  • Content that facilitates exploitation
  • Minimising or sanitising history
  • Endangering victims by poor advice

Standards and interfaces required Filled

  • 1926 Slavery Convention and 1956 Supplementary Convention
  • ILO Forced Labour Convention and 2014 Protocol
  • UN Trafficking Protocol
  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 4

Context of use required Filled

  • A grave human rights violation studied in history and combated today.
  • chattel slavery in history
  • forced labour
  • debt bondage
  • forced marriage and sexual exploitation
  • human trafficking

Sources Filled

  1. Wikidata item Q8463: slavery - identity and sense of the item
  2. Wikipedia: Slavery - general description of the item

Open questions

  • Should contemporary slavery be a separate entry?
  • How should archives and survivor sources be linked?
  • How should reporting routes be localised?

Machine files

Card as JSON Specification Card backlog vercy.card/1

Provenance

thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed

Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q8463/spec.json