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1 HR/PUB/02/4 Office of the United Nations high Commissioner for Human RightsAbolishing Slaveryand its Contemporary FormsDavid Weissbrodt and Anti-Slavery international * United NationsNew York and Geneva 2002 OHCHR* Michael Dottridge, DirectorNOTE The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do notimply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Secretariat con-cerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning thedelimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

2 Copyright United Nations 2002 All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may be freely quoted or reproduced orstored in a retrieval system for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given and a copyof the publication containing the reprinted material is sent to the Office of the high Commissionerfor Human Rights, Palais des Nations , CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. No part of this publica-tion may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form without the priorpermission of the copyright owner if the purpose relates to profit-making ventures.

3 The licensingof rights for commercial purposes is encouraged by the United ..vParagraphsIntroduction .. international LAW AGAINST Definition of Slavery: the Slavery Convention of 1926 and Convention of 1956 ..008-1804C. Main Characteristics of Other Instruments Prohibiting Slavery ..23-257E. Violations of Other Fundamental Rights Associated with Slavery .. OF Forced Labour .. international Labour Organization .. Forced labour Other relevant human rights Debt Bondage.

4 0049-54015D. Migrant Workers ..055-59016E. Trafficking .. Trafficking in women .. Trafficking in children ..084-92027F. Forced Children and prostitution .. Sexual slavery .. Sex tourism ..109-11134 G. Forced Marriage and the Sale of Wives .. Mail-order brides ..015-11836H. Child Labour and Child Servitude .. The ILO and child The United Nations and child labour .. Implementation strategies .. Convention on the Rights of the Other Apartheid and colonialism.

5 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination2. and Related Intolerance; Historic responsibility2. reparations .. Trafficking in human organs .. Incest .. MONITORING Slavery ILO Mechanisms ..164-173491. The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights ..171-17350C. The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of CONCLUSION AND The authors wish to thank Norah Gallagher for her contribution to this review as well asMatthew Armbrecht, Elizabeth Johnston, Marcela Kostihova, Rose Park, Anna Rothwell and MaryThacker for their assistance.

6 The authors are also grateful for the helpful comments that werereceived from the Government of Pakistan and several non-governmental oranizations when thisreview was first submitted to the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery in helpful were the oral and later written comments from Gunilla Ekberg and from MalkaMarcovich, President of the Movement for the Abolition of Prostitution and Pornography (MAPP)and permanent representative of the Coalition against Trafficking in Women at the United Nationsin Geneva and Vienna.

7 The authors are also grateful for the encouraging comments of theInternational Service for Human Rights. An abbreviated and modified version of this review hasbeen published in the German Yearbook of international Law. 11. At its twenty-third session in 1998 the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery asked David Weissbrodt and Anti-Slavery international .. to prepare a comprehensive review ofexisting treaty and customary law covering all the traditional and contemporary slavery-relatedpractices and relevant monitoring mechanisms.

8 1 At its twenty-fourth session in 1999 the WorkingGroup received a working paper containing a consolidation and review of the conventions on sla-very and an executive summary of that paper ( ). The working paperprovided an update of the two previous studies by members of the Sub-Commission on the Pro-motion and Protection of Human Rights on the subject of slavery, the study by Mohamed Awadin 19662 and the update by Benjamin Whitaker in The Working Group expressed its appre-ciation of the review of the conventions on slavery and the related executive summary.

9 It also rec-ommended to the Sub-Commission that it invite the authors of the review of international stan-dards to update it and submit it to the Sub-Commission for consideration and eventualtransmission to the At its fifty-first session the Sub-Commission adopted resolution 1999/17 of 26 August 1999 inwhich it expressed its appreciation to David Weissbrodt and Anti-Slavery international for theirconsolidation and review of the conventions on slavery and for the executive summary. In thatresolution the Sub-Commission also invited the authors of the review of international standardsto update the review and submit it to the Sub-Commission for its consideration and eventual trans-mission to the Commission.

10 3. At its seventy-sixth meeting, on 24 April 2001, the Commission on Human Rights recom-mended to the Economic and Social Council that the updated report submitted to the Sub-Com-mission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights as documents be compiled into a single report, printed in all official languages and given the widestpossible distribution . This document responds to that invitation, provides a further update on theAwad and Whitaker studies, and summarizes the core international law against slavery.