Scourge of slavery increases amid
new range of global issues, says UN expert
GENEVA (9 September 2019) – In a
world where over 40 million people are enslaved and one in four victims is a
child, the scourge of modern day slavery is only likely to increase as a result
of environmental degradation, migration and demographic shifts, a UN expert
said on Monday.
The Special Rapporteur on
contemporary forms of slavery, Urmila Bhoola, said in a report presented to the
Human Rights Council in Geneva that over 60 percent of those in forced labour
work in the private sector and 98 percent of women and girls subjected to
forced labour have experienced sexual violence.
“These numbers, four years after
States committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, must serve as a wake-up
call,” Bhoola said. “The number of people at a risk of being exploited or
enslaved is likely to increase based on several factors. In the wake of climate
change, people may lose their livelihoods, young people who don’t have access
to decent work may migrate through unsafe channels and changes in the world of
work such as automation may push already vulnerable people out of their jobs.
Such scenarios can increase people’s vulnerability to slavery.
“We cannot afford to stand by while
more and more people are driven into forced labour, servile marriage or child
labour. States and businesses must act now to end slavery, also as it is
economically unprofitable. Slavery leads to increased public health costs,
productivity losses, negative environmental externalities and lost income.”
Bhoola said that the global networks
and systems that make people vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery such
as the global financial, production and trading systems need to be tackled.
“By 2030, some 85 percent of the
more than 25 million young people entering the labour force globally will be in
developing and emerging countries. Their perspectives to access jobs offering
decent work will determine their level of vulnerability to exploitation,
including slavery. To be prepared for such challenges and to tackle slavery
more effectively, it is imperative that anti-slavery efforts are systematic,
scientific, strategic, sustainable, survivor-informed and smart,” said Bhoola.
“Current efforts to end slavery
have been insufficient. States and businesses must take more decisive action to
end slavery by committing more resources to this effort and by adopting and
implementing public policies which address contemporary forms of slavery
effectively.”
ENDS
Ms Urmila Bhoola (South Africa) was
appointed as the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery,
including its causes and consequences, in June 2014. She is independent from
any government and serves in her individual capacity. Ms. Bhoola is a former
Judge of the Labour Court of South Africa. Her judicial appointment followed
twenty years of work as a labour and human rights lawyer in South Africa, and
she has received many awards for her human rights and gender equality work. She
has also been a technical advisor to the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) on labour rights in the Asia Pacific region and was Chief Legal Drafter
of South Africa's Employment Equity Act, designed to redress disadvantages
caused by apartheid. Her most recent report to the Human Rights Council focuses
on the impact of slavery and servitude on marginalized migrant women workers in
the global domestic economy (see
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Slavery/SRSlavery/Pages/SRSlaveryIndex.aspxfor additional information).
The Special Rapporteurs are part of
what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special
Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights
system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and
monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or
thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on
a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their
work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in
their individual capacity.
For more information and media
requests please contact:
Satya Jennings at (+41 79 444 3702
/ sjennings@ohchr.org)
For media inquiries related to
other UN independent experts: Jeremy Laurence – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 /
jlaurence@ohchr.org)
Follow news related to the UN’s
independent human rights experts on Twitter@UN_SPExperts.
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