A/HRC/RES/42/10
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
4 October 2019
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Forty-second session
9–27 September 2019
Agenda item 3
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council
on 26 September 2019
42/10.
Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its
causes and consequences
The Human Rights Council,
Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that no one
shall be held in slavery or servitude and that slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited
in all their forms,
Recognizing the Slavery Convention of 1926, the Supplementary Convention on the
Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery of
1956 and the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), of the International Labour
Organization, and the Protocol thereto of 2014, and other relevant international instruments
that prohibit all forms of slavery and call upon Governments to eradicate such practices,
Recalling that the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action strongly
condemned the fact that slavery and slavery-like practices still exist today in parts of the
world, and urged States to take immediate measures as a matter of priority to end such
practices, which constitute flagrant violations of human rights,
Reaffirming Human Rights Council resolutions 6/14 of 28 September 2007, 15/2 of
29 September 2010, 24/3 of 26 September 2013 and 33/1 of 29 September 2016,
Recalling the adoption by the General Assembly of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development,1
Condemning contemporary forms of slavery, while acknowledging that it is a global
issue that affects all continents and most countries of the world, and calling upon States to
increase action as a matter of urgent priority to end such practices,
Deeply concerned that the global estimate of the number of people subjected to
contemporary forms of slavery is 40.3 million, of which 28.7 million are women and girls
and one in four are children,2
Recognizing that discrimination, social exclusion, gender inequality and poverty lie
at the heart of contemporary forms of slavery, and the particular vulnerability of migrant
workers,
1
2
General Assembly resolution 70/1.
A/HRC/42/44.
GE.19-17078(E)