Foreshadowing today’s epidemic of deaths of despair hitting the United States, an unprecedented mortality crisis ravaged Eastern Europe 30 years ago as the region transitioned to capitalism. In the first 15 years after the fall of Communism, Russia lost more than three times as many people as during World War I, with male life expectancy dropping 5.7 years from 1991-1994. Over the first decade, this translated into 7.3 million excess deaths in Eastern Europe.

Forced labour involving Chinese workers is a global problem that takes many forms ‒ such as labour camps in Xinjiang, construction workers on BRI projects, and individuals being brought into the U.S. through Mexico to work on illegal marijuana farms. What legal tools exist to fight these abusive practices? And how are those tools being used? The talk will discuss how the U.S. and Europe are using (or not using) trade sanctions as well as impact litigation to combat this problem.

In this presentation Dr Khalid Abu-Ismail will discuss ESCWA's World Development Challenges Report and its related background papers.