A/72/139 widespread access to the Internet, have in some cases aided perpetrators of human rights violations in finding and trafficking victims into situations of slavery. 25. Data on the acquisition price of slaves from 2000 B.C. to 2004 suggest that globalization has reduced barriers to and encouraged contemporary forms of slavery. The analysis showed a steady decline in the price of slaves after World War II, which is characterized as a period of globalization, with prices being the lowest in history in the most recent years analysed. 12 As well as incentivizing enslavement, lowering the economic price that a slaveholder has to pay to enslave someone can also increase the subsequent level of exploitation and human rights abuses experienced by the victim. If the cost of replacing a slave is small, victims are seen as a low-value and disposable commodity and there is no economic incentive to take adequate care of their needs. 26. The significant cuts in government spending on social services in many countries, and the privatization of public goods that have characterized globalization have additionally impeded the capacity of States to tackle the causes and consequences of slavery through the provision of services that could prevent s uch exploitation, including education and social services, as well as of appropriate assistance to identified victims. Poverty 27. Poverty creates profound vulnerability to contemporary forms of slavery. There is a clear correlation between the poorest countries and those that have the highest prevalence of slavery. The only factor that dilutes this correlation is the fact that victims from low-income countries that experience extreme poverty can be trafficked into situations of slavery in more developed countries. 13 While extreme poverty declined significantly under the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, progress was not enjoyed equally across regions, countries and groups within different societies. This has meant that all too often the most vulnerable, including those living in isolated rural areas, children and women and indigenous communities, are excluded from the gains made in poverty reduction. This leaves them without reliable access to the necessary means to meet their needs, including food, water, shelter, medical services and clothes. 28. The despair created by the inability to meet basic needs can make people extremely vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery. They are more likely to accept offers of employment that lead to situations of debt bondage or other forms of forced labour and domestic servitude. As highlighted in the report by the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council in 2016, bonded labourers are frequently reported to live in situations of poverty that are sustained through generations. The majority are trapped in debt bondage because the only way that they can obtain the credit needed to meet basic needs or react to adverse life events is to take funds that are tied to deeply exploitative labour situations from employers or recruiters. 14 Poverty can also create vulnerability to other forms of contemporary slavery. Families experiencing extreme poverty are more likely to allow or force their children into the worst forms of child labour and/or coerce and force young girls into situations of forced and servile marriage in order to obtain a dowry payment. For example, when the Special Rapporteur visited the Niger, the country with the highest proportion of child marriage in the world, she noted that the phenomenon was highest among girls who were the least educated, poorest and living in rural __________________ 12 13 14 17-11988 Kevin Bales, Ending Slavery: How We Free Today’s Slaves (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2007). p. 15. Ibid. See A/HRC/33/46. 9/21