CHILD SLAVERY: UN Special Rapporteur holds interactive discussion

Submitted by crinadmin on Fri, 16/09/2011 - 03:02

Summary: On 14 September, the Human Rights Council held an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Gulnara Shahinian.

Ms Shahinian presented her 2011 report to the Human Rights Council on child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector, before opening the floor to a disucussion with States, UN agencies and NGOs.

Main challenges to combating slavery

In her presentation, she said that the main challenges to be addressed when combating slavery could be categorized into five key areas: awareness raising, legislation, discrimination, rehabilitation and financial and technical assistance programmes. Lack of awareness was a significant issue, as Ms. Shahinian said that only 20 per cent of all forced labour was an outcome of trafficking and that much remained to be done with respect to the other 80 per cent of the victims of forced labour involved in the informal sector, in supply chains and export processing zones and within indigenous or minority populations in rural areas.

The Special Rapporteur said that legislation prohibiting slavery was often vague without specific prohibitions on slavery practices and that the victims of slavery were often discriminated against because they belonged to indigenous groups or were asylum seekers, refugees, irregular and smuggled migrants. Ms. Shahinian recommended that States proactively investigate and prosecute crimes committed around mines and quarries and provide compensation and adequate rehabilitation and reintegration for children.

Response from concerned countries

Romania, Peru and Poland made statements

NGOs

Franciscans International and Sudwind made statements

SILVIA PALOMBA, of Franciscans International, said they would like to draw the attention of the Special Rapporteur to India. Children exploited in informal mines were trafficked across the borders from Nepal and Bangladesh. They were also exposed to criminality and prostitution. Franciscans International called on India to ratify the International Labour Organization Convention 138 on minimum age, adopt a national plan for the protection of children working in mines, ensure the best interest of the child was the main priority for any laws on mining, and extend an invitation to the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.