The United Nations(UN)’s International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is annually celebrated across the globe on 2nd December with an aim to eradicate the modern form of slavery like human trafficking, sexual exploitation, child labour, forced marriage and forced recruitment of children for armed conflicts.
Background:
The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is celebrated on 2nd December to mark date, 2nd December 1949, on which the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA) adopted the resolution A/RES/317(IV) – United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Person and of the exploitation of the Prostitution of other.
Modern Forms forms of Slavery:
i.The slavery has evolved in many forms and even today various traditional forms of slavery still persisit in their earlier forms.
ii.The UN Human rights bodies have documented the old forms of slavery that have roots in the traditional beliefs and customs.
iii.These forms are the results of the long term discrimination against the minority and vulnerable groups who are considered as low caste and indigenous people.
Other forms of slavery:
i.Forced labour like bonded labour and debt bondage are the contemprorary forms of slavery. Forced labour includes the worker’s trafficker for economic exploitation, they work in industries like food, garments, agriculture and forced prostitution.
ii.Child labour is also a part of the economic exploitation, these kid of exploitation are against the Convention on the rights of the Child.
iii.Human trafficking means recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by threat or force for the purpose of exploitation.
iv.The consent of the trafficked person for exploitation is irrelevant.
v.If a child is being trafficked, even without the use of force, it is considered a crime.
Efforts of ILO:
i.The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has adopted a legally binding protocol designed to strengthen the global efforts to eliminate forced labour. This protocol entered into force in November 2016.
ii.ILO’s “50 for Freedom campaign” aims to persuade at least 50 countries to ratify the protocol on Forced Labour by the end of 2019.
iii.So far 47 countries have ratified the ILO’s Protocol on Forced Labour.
Key Points:
i.ILO stated that more than 40.3 million people across the globe are victims of modern slavery, which includes 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage.
ii.One in every 4 victims of modern slavery are children.
iii.More than 16 million people under forced labour are exploited in the private sector like domestic work, construction and agriculture.
iv.Around 4.8 million people are forced into sexual exploitation and 4 million people are forced in labour by the state authorities.
v.99% of the victims in commercial sex industry ad 58% of other industry are women and girls.
About International Labour Organisation (ILO):
Director General(DG)– Guy Ryder.
Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland.
