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Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Another key area of focus of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, is child and forced marriage. The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery obligates Member States to take all "practicable and necessary legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the complete abolition or abandonment" of, inter alia, any institution or practice which amounts to forced marriage, such as when a woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in marriage on payment to her parents, guardians, family or another person or group; when a husband, his family or his clan transfers his wife to another person for value received or for any other reason; or the inheriting by another person of a woman on the death of her husband (see art. 1). Early and forced marriage can, under certain circumstances, constitute servile marriage or result in domestic servitude or other forms of slavery. The previous mandate holder drew links between child marriage and slavery, and pointed out that Member States were obliged to prohibit and eliminate slavery as a non-derogable and fundamental principle of international law. Child marriage is linked to the thematic issues of trafficking for forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation, migration and contemporary forms of slavery, which reinforces the need for cooperation among the respective mandate holders as part of a comprehensive multi-agency and multi-stakeholder effort to eradicate those practices from society, as women and girls in child and forced marriages may experience conditions within the marriage that meet "international legal definitions of slavery and slavery-like practices", including forced labour. Furthermore, "a potentially high proportion of child marriage cases appear to constitute the worst forms of child labour under the 1999 ILO Convention No. 182."
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- At the United States federal level, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labour Affairs is mandated to, inter alia, create and maintain a List of Goods Produced with Child Labor or Forced Labor. In addition, a list of products using forced or indentured child labour is also produced by the Bureau of International Labour Affairs and intended to ensure that United States federal agencies do not procure goods made by this labour. Under the Trade and Development Act of 2000, the Secretary of Labor is mandated to issue beneficiary country initiatives to implement their international commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. These transparency initiatives primarily provide information for government procurement but also assist investors and consumers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- The United States Tariff Act of 1930 is also relevant to supply chains and goods produced using forced labour. In section 1307 of the Tariff Act, the import of goods produced with prison labour and forced labour is specifically prohibited: "All goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor under penal sanctions shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited". The terms forced labour or/and indentured labour include forced or indentured child labour.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Children
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- According to ILO data from 2012, 5.5 million of the 20.9 million of persons in forced labour are children 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. 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.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned about the high number of children in domestic work (see section 2c). Children are often sought for domestic work as they are seen as cheaper, less demanding and easier to control than adults. There are large numbers of child domestic workers in all continents, with the highest number probably residing in Asia. For example, ILO reports that 175,000 children under 18 are employed in domestic service in Central America, more than 688,000 in Indonesia, 53,942 children under 15 in South Africa and 38,000 children between 5 and 7 in Guatemala. Girls constitute the vast majority of child domestic workers (90 per cent according to some estimates). According to ILO, more girls under 16 years are in domestic service than in any other category of child labour.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- Although the victims are largely invisible, domestic servitude constitutes a global human rights concern. Every region in the world is affected. Domestic servitude takes many shape and forms, ranging from slavery as understood by the 1926 Slavery Convention to slavery-like practices, such as bonded domestic labour and child domestic labour. Millions of women and girls, pursuing the opportunities that domestic work provides, while providing a valuable contribution to society, are at risk because their rights, equal human dignity and autonomy are not adequately protected.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 64
- Paragraph text
- Feminized poverty pushes women and girls into domestic work and makes them easy to exploit. Women, who often carry the burden of providing for children, suffer disproportionally from cuts to welfare programmes and essential public services in a situation of economic crisis and budget cuts. In many countries, the collapse of entire agricultural sectors, often linked to inequitable terms of trade, has driven also women and girls into rural-urban or international migrations. With the supply of cheap, desperate labour outstripping demand, power relationships are often so grossly unequal that the degree of exploitation endured by domestic workers depends on the employer's will.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- The concept of slavery and slavery-like practices cannot be analysed without referral to the development of international human rights instruments, starting with the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes the principle of the prohibition of slavery in all its forms. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights went on to legally prohibit slavery in all its forms, including servitude and forced labour (art. 8), while the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes that children should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Additionally "their employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to life or likely to hamper their normal development should be … punishable by law" (art. 10).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- In 1999, the ILO member States, conscious of the magnitude of the problem of children being trapped in the worst forms of child labour, adopted Convention No. 182 (1999) concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. This convention is the reflection of a global consensus that immediate and effective measures should be taken to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter or urgency. ILO recommendation No. 190 advises ILO members on the implementation of Convention No. 182 and allows for exceptions for children from the age of 16 working in hazardous environments, provided that the health, safety and morals of the children concerned are fully protected and that "the children have received adequate specific instruction or vocational training in the relevant branch of activity".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- In its resolution 66/140, the General Assembly reiterated its call for an end to harmful traditional or customary practices, such as early and forced marriage, and called upon States to take appropriate measures to address the root factors of child and forced marriages, including by undertaking educational activities to raise awareness regarding the negative aspects of such practices. It urged all States to enact and strictly enforce laws to ensure that marriage was entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses, and, in addition, to enact and strictly enforce laws concerning the minimum legal age of consent and the minimum age for marriage and raise the minimum age for marriage where necessary, and to develop and implement comprehensive policies, plans of action and programmes for the survival, protection, development and advancement of the girl child in order to promote and protect the full enjoyment of her human rights and to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including by making such plans an integral part of her total development process.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- The General Assembly also urged States to ensure that efforts to enact and implement legislation to end child and forced marriages engaged all stakeholders and agents of change and to ensure that the information on the legislation against the practice was well known and generated social support for the enforcement of such laws and legislation. States were urged to support community workshops and discussion sessions to enable communities to collectively explore ways to prevent and address child and forced marriages, provide information through stakeholders credible to the community, such as medical personnel and local, community and religious leaders, regarding the harm associated with those marriages, give greater voice to girls and ensure consistence of message throughout the entire community, and encourage the much-needed strong engagement of men and boys.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Boys
- Children
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The General Assembly called upon States to support and implement, including with dedicated resources, multisectoral policies and programmes that ended the practice of child and forced marriages and to ensure the provision of viable alternatives and institutional support, especially educational opportunities for girls, with an emphasis on keeping girls in school through post-primary education, including those who were already married or pregnant, ensuring physical access to education, including by establishing safe residential facilities, increasing financial incentives to families, promoting the empowerment of girls, improving educational quality and ensuring safe and hygienic conditions in schools.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Servile marriage affects both adults and children. Under international human rights law, a child cannot provide informed consent to a marriage. The marriage is therefore considered forced and falls under the slavery-like practices defined in the Convention. International human rights law, including the Convention, requires that a minimum age for marriage be established, with 18 years the recommended minimum age. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges that, in some countries, the minimum age for marriage is lower than 18 years. She also recognizes that, in some countries, exceptions are made for marriage below the national minimum age. The Special Rapporteur strongly urges that rigorous measures be taken in such situations to ensure that the rights of the child are in no way violated by marriage.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 84
- Paragraph text
- ILO is leading a global programme entitled "Minors out of Mining", which includes at least 15 countries and partners from the mining industry such as the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), along with Communities and Small-Scale Mining (CASM). The aim of the programme is to effectively and efficiently deal with child exploitation in the informal mining and quarrying sector. Projects at the national level are designed to address the root causes and combat child labour in small-scale mining. Governments lead the work with support from workers, donors, employers and communities. ILO has implemented successful projects to stop children working in mines in many countries, such as Mongolia and Philippines, which focused on increasing the educational and vocational training opportunities for children. In Philippines, their project also focused on providing alternative livelihood schemes for the parents of children working in the mines.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Children
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted resolution 1468 on forced marriages and child marriage. The Assembly defined forced marriage as "the union of two persons at least one of whom has not given their full consent to the marriage". It defined child marriage as "the union of two persons at least one of whom is under 18 years of age". Among other things, it urged the national parliaments of the Council of Europe member States to fix at or raise to 18 years the minimum statutory age of marriage for women and men, to make it compulsory for every marriage to be declared and entered by the competent authority in an official register, and to consider the possibility of dealing with acts of forced marriage as an independent criminal offence.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- Governments should also sign and ratify all relevant ILO Conventions. In conformity with ILO Convention No. 182, Governments should adopt legislation that prohibits children from working in mines and quarries for both the formal and informal sector. Governments which have not yet established a list of hazardous work for children in conformity with ILO recommendation No. 190 need to do so urgently and include in such a list the work performed in the mining and quarrying sector as both types of work are by their very nature and the conditions in which they are performed hazardous work as defined in article 3 of ILO recommendation No. 190. Governments that have already established such a list need to ensure that work performed in the mining and quarrying sector is included or revise the list accordingly.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 95
- Paragraph text
- Governments should increase the means for enforcing the law by allocating sufficient resources for labour inspection services. The legislation should provide for regular inspections of mines and quarries, and special training and information on child slavery should be given to inspectors responsible for this sector. The Special Rapporteur encourages Governments to take inspiration from the experience of the Brazilian mobile inspection units that -with protection from the federal police - undertake inspections in remote areas. Where crimes are committed, there should be prompt, effective investigation and prosecution of those exploiting children. The criminal penalties should be commensurate with the crimes committed.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 99
- Paragraph text
- Education is widely considered to be the most effective tool for tackling child labour as it keeps children in school and away from work. The Special Rapporteur believes that this tool can also be used to prevent child slavery in mining and quarrying. Primary education should be made accessible and free or affordable for children and training programmes need to be set up for parents. Governments need to assign resources to build schools in artisanal mining and quarrying areas and adequately train teachers to identify children's problems and needs. The standard of education needs to be improved at all levels and the Government must provide secondary schooling and vocational training which is often absent. Recreational facilities should also be built to occupy children out of school hours, as parents often see mining and quarrying as a way to keep their children busy and out of trouble. The Ministry of Education should be allocated the necessary budget to implement these programmes.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Education
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been identified as being home to adults and children who are subjected to debt bondage or trafficking while working in the mining sector. Forced labour in the mining sector has been reported to involve multinational corporations that work on the extraction of precious metals or minerals. In the Kivu provinces in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, debt bondage has been reported as one of the most common forms of contemporary slavery in mines. Workers contract debts to purchase food, supplies and working tools when they start working and continue to accrue debt in order to meet their basic needs. Most of the workers in debt bondage in North Kivu province come from other eastern provinces.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- It has also been reported that indigenous peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are subjected to practices similar to slavery, including debt bondage, by the Bantu majority. Indigenous peoples are often trapped in debt bondage by Bantu "masters" who often sell them goods such as clothes, food and medicine at inflated prices and add exorbitant rates of interest if the goods are not paid for on time and who demand their work in return. It is also a common practice for the Bantu to create new debts in order to sustain the exploitation of bonded labourers. For example, it has been reported that they provide food to indigenous children and then add inflated costs to the debts of parents.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- In situations of debt bondage, the power imbalance between the employer (or creditor) and the worker often increases the worker's vulnerability to further human rights abuses. Employers and creditors are reported to adjust interest rates, to make further deductions arbitrarily as penalties for perceived poor performance, and/or to charge high prices for basic goods or working tools resulting in an increase of the debt and the perpetuation of deeply exploitative situations. Furthermore, bonded labourers are often subjected to physical and psychological abuse, to abusive conditions of work, such as long working hours, to dangerous and unhealthy work, and to severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, including in relation to changing employment. Children in debt bondage can be particularly vulnerable to additional violations of their human rights, as they lack access to education as well as to opportunities to participate in cultural and recreational activities.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- While this is most obvious with regard to the enduring patterns of domestic slavery, most domestic workers will be confronted one way or another with discrimination. During the course of her missions to Ecuador (A/HRC/15/20/Add.3) and Brazil (A/HRC/15/20/Add.4), the Special Rapporteur noted that girls of Afro-descent were far more likely to end up in domestic servitude than more light-skinned Brazilians. A study found that 69 per cent of children in domestic work in Brazil classified themselves as "black", compared to 31 per cent who considered themselves "white".
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- [Children are particularly vulnerable to domestic servitude, especially if they live with their employers and/or migrate on their own to find domestic work:] States should prohibit live-in domestic work for migrant or local children younger than 18 years, since it is typically inherently hazardous. Other domestic work of children who are younger than 15 or still completing their mandatory education should be prohibited to the extent that it interferes with their schooling.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Children are often treated by their employers as commodities - replaceable cheap labour to be thoroughly exploited. The 1926 Slavery Convention makes illegal any practice whereby "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised". Some of the children who work in artisanal mining and quarrying are also subjected to forced labour or debt bondage which are slavery-like practices that are expressly prohibited by international law.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- In accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 24/3, the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, will examine and report on all contemporary forms of slavery and slavery-like practices, in particular those defined in the Slavery Convention of 1926 and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956, as well as all other issues covered previously by the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. She will also continue to promote the effective implementation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the 2014 Protocol thereto, as well as ILO Convention No. 189 (2011) and Recommendation No. 201 concerning decent work for domestic workers, which represent a significant advance in the international legal framework protecting the rights of domestic workers, including the right to education for child domestic workers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- Children
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- In that regard, the Special Rapporteur will follow up on the key recommendations made by her predecessor for the elimination of all forms of domestic servitude. In her report to the Human Rights Council at its fifteenth session (A/HRC/15/20), the previous Special Rapporteur addressed the root causes of domestic servitude and its impact on women and children and made concrete recommendations for the monitoring and enforcement of labour standards. Besides the implementation of existing recommendations, which remains a key challenge, more research, notably qualitative reporting and situational analysis, is required on the often invisible workers in domestic servitude, including their existence in developed economies, which is often obscured.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- In many cases, poverty will make parents involuntary accomplices to the exploitation of their own children. In Haiti (see A/HRC/12/21/Add.1), parents from poor families will often send one or more of their children to stay with more affluent families, who may be relatives, family friends or complete strangers. In its idealized form, the practice should ensure that the host family takes care of the child and pays for its schooling, while expecting the child in return to take up a modest set of household chores. In reality, the majority of the estimated 150,000-500,000 so-called restavèk children in Haiti are exploited in domestic servitude. They frequently work extremely long hours without pay, are deprived of schooling, health care and adequate food or shelter and often suffer physical and sexual abuse. The practice is so associated with abuse that the word restavèk (which literally means "to stay with" in Haitian Creole) has become a pejorative term.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Increasingly, parents are implicated in the exploitation of children in the general market for domestic labour. Some parents do so with the belief that their children will be provided with formal education and work. Deceiving the parents, the intermediaries often end up trafficking the children into domestic servitude or other forms of exploitation. In Ecuador (see A/HRC/15/20/Add.3), children are "rented" by their parents or others to third parties who can employ them at their will. Many of the victims are exploited in domestic servitude. Reports of the Council of Europe express concern about the international trafficking of children aged from 8 to 15 years from West Africa to Europe, where they are exploited in domestic labour, usually in the households of compatriots. Underlying such practices is a failure to recognize children as full human beings with equal rights. Instead, children are treated as commodities who can be moved around and exploited for the benefit of adults.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
- 2010
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Children find it especially difficult to extract themselves from situations of domestic servitude. The relationship between the employer and child usually starts out seemingly well before exploitation and abuse become obvious. Consequently, the children feel that they are in the wrong and stay for fear of 'failing' their families. Children who have been sexually abused find it difficult to leave because of the shame of 'being spoiled' and when they do leave, are afraid to go back to their families and end up in the streets. Child domestic workers who migrated or were trafficked long distances often face financial, language and cultural barriers preventing their return home.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- 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
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Child marriages, unions that involve at least one partner below the minimum legal age of marriage, constitute a form of forced marriage since the child is not in a position to consent. Article 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women specifies that "the betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage". The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considers that the minimum age for marriage should be 18 years for both man and woman. This age limit, which is in line with the definition of the child provided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is also reflected in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (art. 21).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Harmful Practices
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Women
- Year
- 2010
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