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REPORT OF UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF SLAVERY – ENFORCING

ACCOUNTABILITY OF STATES & BUSINESSES IN SUPPLY CHAINS – CHILDREN & WOMEN

 

To read Full 22-Page 2015 Special Rapporteur UN HRC Report, go to UN site: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Pages/ListReports.aspx

and scroll down to A/HRC/30/35.

 

Website of the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Slavery/SRSlavery/Pages/SRSlaveryIndex.aspx

 

 

United Nations

A/HRC/30/35

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General Assembly

Distr.: General

8 July 2015

 

Original: English

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Human Rights Council
Thirtieth session
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,

political, economic, social and cultural rights,

including the right to development

               Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, including its causes and consequences, Urmila Bhoola

Summary

       Following a brief overview of the activities carried out by the mandate, the Special Rapporteur in the present report provides a thematic study on enforcing the accountability of States and businesses for preventing, mitigating and redressing contemporary forms of slavery in supply chains.

 


 

Enforcing State & Business Accountability for Ending Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Supply Cchains

*Following egregious violations of health and building safety standards that resulted in fatal accidents, such as the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh leading to death of over 1,100 garment workers,[1] additional attention has been given to increasing State and corporate accountability for violations of human rights, including labour rights, in global value or supply chains.[2] In this context, the recent commitment by leaders of major global economies at the recent Group of Seven (G7) Summit to take action to address human rights in global supply chains is welcome and needs to be followed up by concrete actions.[3]

 

*In the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956, the protection of the right is extended to include “institutions and practices similar to slavery”, i.e. debt bondage, serfdom, servile marriage and delivering a child for exploitation. Child economic exploitation and child hazardous labour are further prohibited in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 10 (3)) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 32). In the International Labour Organization (ILO) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), the elimination of the worst forms of child labour is called for, which are defined as including all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour as well as hazardous work (art. 3).

 

*According to ILO data from 2012, 5.5 million of the 20.9 million of persons in forced labour are children[4] and an estimated 5–15 per cent of those are working in supply chains, with the figure significantly higher if domestic supply chains are also taken into account. The lowest tiers in the informal economy are particularly at risk of involving the worst forms of child labour. In 2012, the number of children involved in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development, often understood as a proxy for the worst forms of child labour, was said to be 85 million in absolute terms.[5] While reliable data on those sectors most susceptible to using such work are difficult to obtain, cases of the worst forms of child labour were found in sectors that correspond to those with a high risk of contemporary forms of slavery occurring in supply chains, including agriculture (i.e., farming of raw materials such as sugar, cotton, cocoa and tobacco), construction, mining and quarrying, and garments and textiles.[6]

 



                     [1]   These incidents continue to occur. The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development called for increased business accountability after 72 women workers burned to death in factory fire in the Philippines in May 2015 (www.apwld.org).

                     [2]   See Ending Exploitation, OSCE occasional paper series No.7, p.7. A United Nations Children’s Fund report (Children’s Rights and Business Principles, p. 9) explains that the value chain of a business “encompasses the activities that convert inputs into outputs by adding value. It includes entities with which the business has a direct or indirect business relationship and which either a) supply products or services that contribute to the business’s own products or services [a ‘supply chain’], or b) receive products or services from the business” (conventionally known as a production chain).

                     [3]   See Leaders’ Declaration, G7 Summit, 7–8 June 2015, pp. 4–6, https://www.g7germany.de/Content/EN/_Anlagen/G7/2015-06-08-g7-abschluss-eng_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1. See also International Trade Union Confederation statement, available at www.ituc-csi.org/international-union-bodies-welcome.

                     [4]   See ILO, “Global Estimate of Forced Labour: Results and methodology” (2012).

                     [5]   ILO, “Marking Progress against Child Labour: Global Estimates and Trends 2000–2012” (2013), pp. 3 and 32.

                     [6]   ILO, “Implementing the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016: a training guide for policymakers” (2013), p. 9.