Contemporary Forms of Slavery

Franciscans International condemns the ongoing existence of slavery, calling the international community to recognize the extent of this problem, and protect the human rights of those trapped in slavery.

The Slavery Conventions (1926, 1956) along with the ILO Forced Labour Convention (1930) were drawn up with the aim of eradicating the practice of slavery and forced labour. Yet today, contemporary forms of slavery like forced labour, bonded labour, trafficking in persons and the worst forms child labour persist in every continent contravening Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ILO Global Report for 2002 “A Future Without Child Labour”, estimated that the number of children in the worst forms of child labour at 179 million children. Of these, some 8.4 million children are in slavery, debt bondage and forced labour, which includes forced recruitment into armed conflict, trafficking and prostitution and pornography. To this figure, we must add the millions of women and men who are trafficked for sexual or labour exploitation or who are acquired to work as forced or bonded labourers around the world.

Franciscans International is particularly concerned that bonded labour continues to be a serious problem in several countries, namely India and Pakistan. Though these two States ratified ILO Convention No 29 over 45 years ago and passed appropriate domestic legislation, progress remains slow and research indicates that millions of people continue to work in conditions of forced labour in both countries.

At the Commission, FI will call upon governments:

1. to publicly recognize the scale of the problem, particularly where it exists within their own borders;
2. to take effective measures to identify, release, support and compensate those held in slavery whether they be trafficked, bonded or in some other form of forced labour;
3. to address the root causes of slavery such as poverty, discrimination, corruption and increasing inequalities of wealth and opportunity between regions and countries.