Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
16 March 2021

Distinguished President,
Excellencies,
Colleagues, Friends,

It is an honour to participate in this remembrance of the victims of slavery and four hundred years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. I thank the African Group for organising this event.  

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was a systematic attack against Africans, and a disgrace to humanity as a whole.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Durban World Conference against Racism, where States acknowledged that “slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so”.

They agreed on the need to achieve justice for victims of the human rights violations which result from racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

Because when the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished, its roots in these dehumanising ideologies have continued to harm our fellow human beings. Today, women, men and children of African descent – some of whose ancestors endured enslavement – still suffer from harsh systemic discrimination, disproportionate levels of poverty, and other severe human rights violations and injustice.

This day of commemoration calls us to honour those who suffered the profound injustice of enslavement.
It also urges us to explore more deeply the contemporary consequences of the slave trade – including the evidence so starkly reflected in the unequal impacts of COVID-19.

Generation upon generation of deprivation and injustice shaped the fractures that the pandemic exploited and amplified.

The disproportionate and massive loss of lives and health of people of African descent were powered by decades of unequal health care and inadequate living conditions.

The overwhelming economic and social burdens they are suffering reflect systemic obstacles to their equal education, employment and choices.

To justify slavery, Africans and people of African descent had to be dehumanised by racist ideas. Today, COVID has starkly reminded us that many of today's most serious social and economic problems are rooted in the past.
It is high time to halt and repair these violations of human rights, and establish reparatory justice.

And it is high time to end contemporary forms and manifestations of slavery.

More than 40 million people continue to be trapped in serfdom; bonded labour; trafficking; domestic servitude; sexual slavery; child, early and forced marriage; and forced labour.

They disproportionately affect ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and other communities subjected to racial discrimination.

Thirty years ago, the UN established the Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary forms of Slavery. Every year, the Fund assists thousands of victims by awarding grants to civil society organizations that provide psycho-social, medical, humanitarian and legal support.

This year we are seeing a substantial increase in the number of applications for grants. The pandemic appears to be pushing more people into slavery-like conditions, while funding for victims is falling.

Two centuries ago, abolitionist movements rose up with eloquence and resolve to demand an end to trans-Atlantic slavery and the practise of enslavement. Today, in honouring those enslaved in the past, I also stand in solidarity with survivors of contemporary forms of slavery  – and I pay tribute to the dedication of the many activists who have come to their aid I ask you to join us in that support.

Thank you.