Despite laws, slavery has still not been eliminated, Annan says

Despite numerous laws banning “this intolerable and unacceptable practice,” slavery has not yet been eradicated, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a message to mark the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

Mr. Annan said slavery and human trafficking, and such related practices as debt bondage, forced prostitution and forced labour, violate the “most fundamental human rights.”

In a message to mark the International Day, which is observed on 2 December, the Secretary-General urged all States to ratify two optional protocols to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

The two protocols are the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air and Sea.

Mr. Annan also encouraged States to give money to the UN Voluntary Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. Its Board of Trustees, together with the Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, and the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, issued a joint call for contributions to the Fund.

The Board said that while many States have abolished slavery, the practice flourishes in some areas and profits are still being made.

In his message, General Assembly President Julian Hunte of St. Lucia noted that "Fifty-five years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed that 'no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.'"

Millions of men, women and children around the world were still being condemned to forced labour, bonded labour, domestic labour, sexual exploitation, human trafficking or other forms of slavery, he said.

"How is it that at a time of astounding progress in science, technology and advanced global communication; at a time of increased awareness of, and insistence on, the importance of respect for human rights, some 27 million persons are enslaved or work as forced labourers?" Mr. Hunte asked.

He, too, called on the countries who had not done so to ratify international agreements to end slavery.