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Servile marriage 2012, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- In its resolution 843 (IX), the General Assembly declared some customs, ancient laws and practices relating to marriage and the family to be inconsistent with the principles set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- A number of sources have reported that children are subjected to contemporary slavery in Ghanaian fisheries by "fisher-entrepreneurs" or middlemen who take them far from their homes to work in fisheries. Recruiters reportedly deceive families with promises of educational opportunities in exchange for a few hours of work each day. Children are also often promised cash or in-kind payments for their labour, such as a cow for boys or a sewing machine for girls. Parents may be offered an advance for their child's work, thus placing the child in a situation of debt bondage. Lake Volta is a popular destination for child slaves, as fishery resources have been depleted and children are considered cheap sources of labour. Tasks in the fishing sector are gendered: boys paddle canoes, pull in nets and carry fish; girls sort, pack and transport fish; and both boys and girls are often tasked with deep-water diving to clear entangled nets. Children usually work six to seven days a week, at least 12 hours a day, and fishing expeditions can last for many days. These children are exposed to dangerous working conditions, long hours, sexual and physical abuse, and even death due to drowning, snake bites or physical abuse at the hands of boat or equipment owners.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2013
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- In situations in which a bride has been forced into marriage because of a debt, it is often impossible for her family to repay the bride price. For example, where brides are victims of physical, psychological or sexual violence, their nuclear families will not take them back because they would need to repay the bride price.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- Reports also indicate that relentless pressure and emotional blackmail are used by parents and families to force young girls into unwanted marriages. More extreme forms of pressure can involve threatening behaviour, abduction, imprisonment, physical violence, rape and, in some cases, murder.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- In the present section, the Special Rapporteur discusses the root causes of servile marriage, which include strengthening family links, preventing unsuitable relationships, protecting perceived cultural and religious ideals, protecting family honour and controlling female behaviour and sexuality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Article 23 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for the right of men and women of a marriageable age to marry and to found a family. Article 23 (3) provides that no marriage is to be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 74
- Paragraph text
- Consequently, mining and quarrying communities often have a high rate of STIs (such as HIV and AIDS), teenage pregnancies and single-parent households. Chemical contamination from artisanal mining can be a risk to an unborn child or breastfeeding children.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- Some parents take out loans against their children's labour. Other parents sell their children and, upon their arrival in the mines, the children are charged exorbitant prices for their transportation to the mines, food and tools by the employer or middleman. In both these instances, the children are often unable to leave the mines or quarries until they have paid off the debt owed to the middleman or employer. In majority of the cases, children become bonded as a result of their parents' debt. Bonded labour is prohibited under the 1956 Supplementary Convention. Many children report not being able to save or even earn enough money to send back home. This results in them being unable to leave their situation until their debt is paid. In 2010, the Special Rapporteur received information that Bangladeshi and Nepali children were being purchased by middlemen or abducted and sold by gangs to mining employers in India. The price of the child varied from 50-75 USD. According to the information received, the children are forced to work to pay off their debt. The middlemen bring both boys and girls to work in the mines. The girls living and working in the mines are often sexually abused by adult mine workers and employers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- In many cultural contexts, women remain dependent on the social protection of their family. This poses an obvious problem for live-in domestic workers who do not have family close to them. Leaving the house is not an option as women living on their own are looked down upon and viewed with suspicion.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In Pakistan, debt bondage has been reported in industries such as the brick kilns, agriculture, fisheries, mining, carpet weaving and glass bangle production, among others. Debt bondage is primarily concentrated in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab in agriculture, and in the brickmaking industry where often entire families are held in bondage. Landless sharecroppers (haris) in Sindh and brickmakers (patheras) in Punjab are the most affected by debt bondage. It has been reported that bonded labourers are often held in captivity by armed guards or their family members are held as hostages, severely limiting the freedom of movement both of the bonded labourers and of their families. The estimates reported by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan pertaining to the period from 2011 to 2014 on the number of releases of bonded labourers ordered by courts in Sindh indicate that the largest number of releases occurred in the districts of Mirpur Khas, Sanghar and Umerkot. Furthermore, natural disasters such as the monsoon floods in 2010 have had a negative impact on the levels of debt bondage in agriculture and have increased migration-based bonded labour in numerous sectors such as construction and brickmaking. Debt bondage in Pakistan is mainly found among minorities, such as non-Muslims (Hindus or Christians) or Muslims who have converted from Hinduism.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- In Malawi, situations of debt bondage are reported to be prevalent within the tobacco industry. This sector is a major source of employment in Malawi and generates a significant amount of income for the country. Tobacco is traditionally grown by farmers who use waged workers, temporary workers and also tenants (workers to whom farmers provide land, food and housing and to whom they loan agricultural tools, the costs of which are deducted from future profits). The relationship between tenants and estate or farm owners has been reported to be largely exploitative, leading to a situation of debt bondage. The costs charged to tenants by the estate or farm owners exceed the amount received from tobacco sales due to manipulation of the debts. This leads to tenants, who are reportedly predominantly male, and their families, becoming trapped in situations of debt bondage. In 2013, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food estimated that 300,000 tobacco tenant families were living in extremely precarious situations in Malawi (see A/HRC/25/57/Add.1, para. 47). Since 1995, the Government has made several attempts to enact a specific law on tenancy labour but has yet not successfully developed such legislation. A tenancy labour bill was first drafted in 1995, and the latest version, from 2012, is still under debate.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2016
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- To help to reduce servile marriage, the Government of India launched conditional cash transfer initiatives to provide incentives to families to delay their daughters' marriages. The "Apni beti apna dhan" ("Our daughter, our wealth") programme was established by the local government of Haryana to issue long-term savings bonds redeemable on a girl's eighteenth birthday, provided that she is unmarried.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- The Convention implicitly prohibits forced early marriage. Under article 1 (d), States parties are required to abolish any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under the age of 18 years is delivered by either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Youth
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The Supplementary Slavery Convention prohibits any institution or practice whereby a woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; the husband of a woman, his family or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another person for value received or otherwise; or a woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by another person.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 112
- Paragraph text
- Governments should provide frontier communities with basic services such as potable water and sanitary facilities. Governments should also provide health clinics and ensure that communities can access good-quality health services free of charge or at an affordable price. This would improve family living and health conditions and thereby diminish their expenses and their need to bring children to work with them.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 104
- Paragraph text
- Given that some children working in this sector are doing so with their families, the family needs to be the main focus of work in this area. Work needs to be done with families to emphasize the high risks and dangers to which children are exposed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 103
- Paragraph text
- For adults who continue to mine and quarry, Governments should also provide alternative livelihoods through which they can supplement the family income. This would increase the economic security of the families and diminish their need for child labour. A proven effective strategy in fighting child slavery is to promote the development of other activities which diversify the local economy and render it less dependent on this sector.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Children start to work with their families (parents or relatives), unpaid, in mines and quarries from the age of 3. They start by performing small tasks such as lifting stones, supplying adults with tools, breaking stones and sifting gravel in order to support the family and eventually end up involved in all aspects of mining and quarrying. Children in artisanal mines and quarries also cook and clean for their families and other adult mine workers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Generally, regions where mining and quarrying communities live suffer from a lack of basic public services (potable water, sanitary facilities and electricity), including social services. The lack of these basic services means that families have to assume the costs for these services. This places a further financial burden on families, which can result in child slavery in this sector (see A/HRC/18/30/Add.2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- Parents can also become complicit in the trafficking of their own children if they hand over their child to a third party knowing that the child will be exploited in domestic work. In its latest concluding comments on Pakistan, for instance, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed "concern at the growing number of children trafficked internally, sometimes sold by their own parents or forced into marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude" (CRC/C/PAK/CO/3-4, para. 95).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The restavèk system appears to have cultural links to West and Central Africa. In several countries of that region, local culture requires families to send some of their children to live with paternal or maternal relatives. The practice was traditionally meant to foster family solidarity and kinship ties. However, owing to the erosion of such ties, such children often end up being subjected to domestic servitude at the hands of their own relatives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Bonded labour, which has been historically associated with agricultural production and the landless poor (see A/HRC/12/21), can touch entire families. In addition to the agricultural work performed by men, bondage arrangements sometimes extend to women who are forced to serve in the household of the creditor. In some cases, parents are forced to give away one or more of their children to the creditor who often subjects them to domestic servitude.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- While it would therefore be inappropriate to stigmatize domestic workers or their employers, the specificities of the sector make domestic workers particularly vulnerable to economic exploitation, abuse and, in extreme cases, subjugation to domestic servitude and domestic slavery. Domestic workers, especially if they live with their employers, often find themselves physically and socially isolated from their families, friends and peers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Domestic workers provide an indispensable contribution to society. If fair labour practices are ensured, the sector can offer domestic workers opportunities to earn an additional salary for their families, to move to and pursue educational options only available in urban settings or, in the case of au pairs, to have the opportunity to experience another country and culture.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the continued high prevalence of children in domestic servitude, bonded labour and other forms of slavery. Children in domestic work present a particular concern globally, in both developed and developing countries. Many child domestic workers are not only subject to exploitation and hazardous work, but often work in circumstances amounting to slavery or bonded labour in order to fulfil debts that they or their parents have incurred to the employer or to recruitment agents. An estimated 15.5 million children below the age of 18 are in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third-party employer, of whom 10.5 million are estimated to be child labourers, either because they are under the legal minimum working age or are working in hazardous conditions or conditions tantamount to slavery. Furthermore, girls outnumber boys and they face specific additional vulnerabilities in the context of migration and are more likely to end up being trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. The Special Rapporteur is committed to working with the International Labour Organization, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders towards eliminating every vestige of child slavery in the world. Children should be at school or play, not at work; and the continued violation of their human rights should be an urgent global priority for Member States and the international community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2014
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- As a result of cultural beliefs, girls and women with dual nationality are sometimes abducted by their families from one country and forced to marry men from their parents' country of origin. This has happened in the United Kingdom to women from Asian diaspora communities. The Governments involved have worked through consular assistance and judicial proceedings to provide victims with effective remedies. In 2005, the United Kingdom set up a forced marriage unit under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office to tackle the issue.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Although international law requires that primary education is free and compulsory, very often parents still have to pay for school equipment such as uniforms, books and stationery. Such additional costs make it unaffordable for parents to send their children to school. Additionally, mechanisms are often not in place to enforce the compulsory primary education requirements. Due to lack of childcare facilities or schools in the area of the mines and quarries, parents, often mothers, end up taking their children to work.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur acknowledges that not all children who work are exploited. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur acknowledges that in some situations working can enrich the development of the child, family and community. Child exploitation occurs when the work that a child carries out is hazardous or interferes with the child's education, or is harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development (art. 32, para. 1, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 102
- Paragraph text
- Economic alternatives, which provide the same income, need to be offered to working mining and quarrying families. Alongside the provision of economic alternatives, Governments should work with international organizations and CSOs to monitor this sector in order to transform it and ensure better pay and working conditions. This could then provide an income for families based on the labour of adults in a relatively safe working environment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- Poverty is one of the main reasons for children working in mines and quarries sector. In such cases, parents are unable to provide for their basic needs and require children to work in this sector in order to support the family income. Very often children work with their parents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph