News- 877

Ms. Gulnara Shahinian, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences presented her report to the IX session of the Human Rights Council (September 2008).

 

Bice contributed to the debate with a written statement which highlighted our projects with girls victim of human trafficking in Ivory Coast and our projects to support street children economically exploited in the market of Abasto (Asuncion, Paraguay).

 

The Special Rapporteur identified areas of work that she would develop in her mandate. She intends to focus on the causes and consequences of forced labour, domestic labour and child labour.
Regarding child labor, UNICEF data show that globally, 1 in 6 children work. New global estimates published by the ILO in 2006 indicate that 218 million children were involved in child labor and that more that 60% of children are in the most hazardous form of work.

 

The Special Rapporteur said that she would strive directly to address the protection, prevention and the restoration of human rights and the dignity of victims of contemporary forms of slavery.

 

According to Ms. Shahinian, cooperation is the key to effective development and to combat slavery at the national, regional and international level. She will also seek to have a multi-stakeholder approach which will ensure continuous dialogue with individuals, governments, national human rights institutions, business, local civil society organizations, relevant UN country offices and regional intergovernmental organizations.

 

One important aspect of her strategy is to raise awareness and enhance knowledge to build understanding on contemporary forms of slavery.

Consequently, the coordination of work with other Special Rapporteurs will be important in order to avoid duplication of work and to facilitate carrying out joint country visits. Country visits are a unique opportunity to engage in direct dialogue with different stakeholders about the experiences that they accumulated, difficulties and problems encountered and best practices in the area of slavery. Ms Shahinian already requested to visit Uzbekistan, Brazil, and Bangladesh.

 

The Special Rapporteur will also participate to the World Congress III on Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescent in Brazil.

 

In addition, the Special Rapporteur reminded that the eradication of slavery needs to be addressed in a programmatic, systematic and holistic way. To make separate programmes developed by several UN agencies effective, it is necessary to put the fight against slavery as a high priority and to mainstream anti- slavery programmes.