ACTING RIGHTS COMMISSIONER SAYS FIGHT AGAINST SLAVERY MUST INCLUDE ACTION TO COUNTER POVERTY, ECONOMIC DISPARITY AND DISCRIMINATION

16 June 2003



OPENING STATEMENT BY MR. BERTRAND RAMCHARAN
ACTING HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

TWENTY-EIGHTH SESSION OF THE WORKING GROUP
ON CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF SLAVERY

16 – 20 June 2003



Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen

It is my pleasure to open the twenty-eighth session of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. It is the third time that I have the opportunity and privilege to address this Group.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the members of the Working Group –Ms. Warzazi, Mr. Pinheiro, Mr. Sattar, Mr. Ogurtsov and Mr. Decaux, especially Mr. Sattar for whom it is the first participation in the Group and Mr. Decaux to whom we express our gratitude for having adjusted his schedule to participate at this session in replacement of Ms. Frey.

I also would like to welcome government representatives who have established a valuable dialogue with this Working Group.

While welcoming representatives of specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs, I would like to pay particular tribute to the latter, for their work and their dedication in supporting the activities of the Group and their fight for the protection and promotion of human rights. The presence and participation of community-based organizations and former victims has reinforced the dynamism of the Working Group. It has strengthened the accuracy of the information it considers and given a profound and human dimension to its work. The testimonies presented by victims are more striking and powerful than any statistics.

May I also welcome the close cooperation between the Board of Trustees of the Trust Fund on contemporary forms of slavery and the Working Group. By identifying in advance priority issues to be discussed at its sessions, the Working Group allows the Trust Fund to make recommendations on the applications they receive in an informed and effective way.

Last year debate in the Working Group was a good opportunity to recall the need to acknowledge that trafficking in persons is not one event but a series of constitutive acts and circumstances implicating a wide range of actors. An effective response requires:

protecting and supporting persons victims of trafficking;
improving cooperation and coordination between countries; and
identifying and counteracting those factors which increase vulnerability to trafficking and which sustain demand.


OHCHR International Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking have been developed to provide practical, rights-based policy guidance on the prevention of trafficking and the protection of victims of trafficking. They put the human rights of trafficked persons at the centre of all efforts to prevent and combat trafficking, including the right to life, to equality, dignity and security; the right to just and favourable conditions of work; the right to health; the right to be recognized as a person before the law.

From these rights and other commitments originates a legal obligation of governments to work towards eliminating trafficking and related exploitation. Two new optional protocols to the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime must be used to further the struggle against slavery: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children and The Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air and Sea.

This year, the Working Group decided to devote an important part of its debate to the issue of Contemporary forms of slavery related to and generated by discrimination, in particular gender discrimination (such as forced marriage, child marriage, sale of wives).

It is a challenging task. By dealing with gender discrimination in exploitative situations, as well as practices such as forced marriages and early marriages, you will consider and tackle practices anchored in specific traditions and cultural contexts.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen

The problems of slavery and slavery-like practices remain unresolved. Slavery was, in a very real sense, the very first international human rights issue. It led to the adoption of the first human rights laws and to creation of the first human rights non-governmental organizations.

More than 50 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated in its article 4 that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”, the international community is fighting new forms of oppression ranging from traditional chattel slavery, bonded labour, serfdom, child labour, migrant labour and domestic labour, to forced labour and slavery for ritual or religious purposes.

The victims of slavery are characterised by their poverty and their vulnerability. Their poverty is linked to the general problems of economic development in their society, their vulnerability is a matter which governments have a responsibility to deal with in order to uphold the fundamental human rights of parts of their population which will otherwise face a form of discrimination.

Thus, combating slavery means not only its direct prohibition by law but also fighting against poverty, illiteracy, economic and social disparities, gender discrimination, violence against women and children, harmful traditional practices and many other factors leading up to its contemporary forms.

Your Group has been committed for 28 years now, informing, raising awareness, and advocating. The 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Working Group, in 2005, might be the opportunity for an assessment of its work.

It is only fair to recall some of your Group’s accomplishments. It has initiated the establishment of two of the existing mechanisms: the Special Rapporteur on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, and the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. The Working Group had called the attention of the international community to the issue of trafficking for many years before the international community acknowledged the gravity and complexity of the matter. Your Group has also been a pioneer in calling for free compulsory primary education to combat exploitation, illiteracy and poverty, and has provided a forum for discussion the sensitive issue of systematic rape during armed conflicts and sexual slavery.

Finally, allow me to mention the Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. I would like to express my gratitude to donors to the Fund, including Governments, NGOs, trade-unions and school teachers and students of different countries. Their voluntary contributions allowed the Secretary-General to give travel grants for representatives of non-governmental organizations to participate at this session, as well as to support projects by local NGOs to assist victims. We wish to appeal to Governments, NGOs, private and public entities and individuals to contribute to the Fund to enable it to continue fulfilling its mandate effectively in 2003.

Allow me to conclude by wishing you success in your deliberations, which the Secretariat will support and will carefully follow. I thank you for your attention



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