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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 modified
- Feb 14, 2020
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 modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 91
- Paragraph text
- The work at the expert and regional levels has only led to limited recognition of the problems by intergovernmental United Nations bodies with a human rights or human rights-related mandate. The Commission on the Status of Women has called on member States to develop measures to prevent the labour and economic exploitation and sexual abuse of girls employed as domestic workers and ensure that they have access to education and vocational training, health services, food, shelter and recreation. The Programme of Action of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance urges States to pay special attention to protecting people engaged in domestic work (contained in A/CONF.189/12, para. 67). As part of the universal periodic review, a number of States have made recommendations to their peers to improve the protection of domestic workers. Such references to a serious, widespread and global human rights concern are far and between. There is nothing similar to the General Assembly's Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (resolution 48/104), which opened another socially constructed "private sphere" filled with human rights violations to the persistent scrutiny of the international community.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Cultural relativism is often given as an excuse for slavery-like violations such as servile marriage and sexual slavery committed against women and girls. Societies that permit servile marriage are based on an overwhelming fear of female sexuality and culturally believe that it should be curtailed and regulated.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Reaffirming forced and early marriages as slavery-like practices is important as it provides an understanding of the violations that victims endure and the kind of interventions required to prevent, monitor and prosecute servile marriage. Victim protection programmes can also be specifically tailored better to support victims of servile marriage. It moves the discussion from being about the rights of women and girls to being about abolishing slavery within communities.
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- Conflict and post-conflict situations have also contributed to an increase in servile marriage, given that girls and women recruited or abducted by armed groups have been forced to marry combatants. Armed groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army have been found to force girls into servile marriage in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan (see S/2012/365).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Women and girls in servile marriage are required to perform all domestic household tasks and, in some cases, to work outside the home in shops or on farms and to have sex with their husbands. If they do not perform their duties adequately, they face physical and psychological abuse from their husbands or their husbands' families. In many such cases, the girl or woman is also a victim of marital rape.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- The availability of domestic help has contributed to women's empowerment, because it has allowed many women to reconcile their professional aspirations with their gendered social obligations towards their children and family. It is therefore a bitter irony that the women and girls who made such advances possible are often subjected to a form of exploitation that is gender-based at its heart.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Children on their own often accept domestic work for lack of other options, in particular as live-in arrangements entail a new home and often a (false) promise of education. Street children, including those who were abandoned or fled parental abuse, often seek domestic work to find shelter. Children who are orphaned as a result of AIDS also often end up in domestic servitude. Girls also increasingly migrate independently from impoverished rural areas in search of domestic work.
- 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
- Girls
- Year
- 2010
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
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 modified
- Feb 14, 2020
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 modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- Often overlooked is the psychological pressure placed on the girl or woman because of constant criticism and verbal abuse from her husband or his family, which makes her insecure and submissive. Such abuse is accompanied by the other violations described below.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
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".
- 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
- Date modified
- Feb 14, 2020
Paragraph
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- While the profit motive drives the demand for forced labour and other contemporary forms of slavery, it is underpinned by "push" factors such as increasing household vulnerability to income shocks, which push more households below the absolute poverty line; lack of education and illiteracy; as well as loss of work and deprivation of land, which force increased informal-sector work, migration and trafficking. The disproportionate impact of those factors on women and girls, who constitute more than half of the victims of forced labour, has been widely documented.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2014
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- In the western and central parts of Tamil Nadu, a high number of adolescent girls reportedly work as bonded labourers under the sumangali scheme in textile mills and garment factories, which is a major hub in the global knitwear sector that supplies international brands. The majority of these workers are reported to belong to Dalit communities and are aged between 14 and 18 years. Debt bondage is also reported in power loom workshops located in the Tiruppur region of Tamil Nadu, which produce woven cloth both for domestic manufacturers and for global suppliers. Those affected by debt bondage in this region are reported to include members of Dalit communities and other poor communities and to include both men and women. Furthermore, some non-agricultural industries in which debt bondage among children is reported to exist include carpet weaving, beedi making, silk production, silk sari production, the brick kilns and stone quarries.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Adolescents
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2016
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 88
- Paragraph text
- Women in servile marriage lack adequate protection in the light of their specific vulnerabilities arising from their gender, low social status and their age (if they are girls). Many countries lack laws criminalizing forced marriage or slavery-like practices that arise from servile marriage such as domestic servitude or marital rape, mainly because some abuses that occur in a marriage are often seen as domestic matters and outside interference is often frowned upon because it would be interference in the privacy of the home. Consequently, there is a tendency to deal with this form of slavery privately, outside the courts.
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Other slavery-like practices take place during servile marriage as the spouse usually ends up in domestic servitude (see A/HRC/15/20) and sexual slavery (whereby she is sexually exploited through the use or threat of force). Although commonly understood to take place during times of conflict, sexual slavery can occur at any time and violates the International Bill of Human Rights. National courts have acknowledged this concept. For example, in United States of America v. Sanga, a man forced a woman to work as a domestic maid for more than two years and to have sex with him. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously held that she was a virtual slave, contrary to the provision of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, under which slavery and involuntary servitude were prohibited. Girls and women in servile marriage have no choice but to perform the tasks expected of them, such as domestic chores, shop or farm work and engaging in sexual intercourse with their husbands. If they refuse to do so, or if their performance is unsatisfactory, they face physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 65
- Paragraph text
- Non-consensual marriage is a form of marriage where one or both parties have not consented. The lack of consent is the main principle underlying all forms of servile marriage. In some instances, the law is used to justify non-consensual marriages. For example, to protect the honour of a girl or woman, some countries can compel a rape victim to marry her rapist if the rapist so agrees. In this situation, the rapist is pardoned. Although these marriages purport to be consensual, fear of stigma and family pressure sometimes coerce rape victims into consenting to them (see E/CN.4/2002/83). Recently, the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice reported the case of Amina Filali, a Moroccan woman who committed suicide after allegedly being forced to marry her rapist. Article 475 of the Moroccan Penal Code provides that a kidnapper or seducer of a minor girl may be acquitted of rape if he marries her (A/HRC/20/28/Add.1, para. 24).
- 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
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The violations that occur within servile marriage cannot be viewed only as acts of violence against women and girls because, although the overwhelming majority of those in servile marriage are girls and women, boys and men are also victims. Owing to gender prejudices, it is often easier for boys and men to leave forced marriages, live as divorcees, remarry and regain control of their lives, in particular because they are usually more educated and can be financially independent. Girls and women are more vulnerable and more likely to be sexually and physically abused. The Special Rapporteur focuses herein on girls and women in servile marriage for those reasons and also because, whether by design, error or omission, there is scant information available about the impact of servile marriage on boys and men.
- 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
- Boys
- Girls
- Men
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- Sexual slavery is a situation in which absolute control over one person is imposed on another, either by the use or threat of force. Servile marriage results in sexual slavery. As mentioned previously, girls in ritual slavery are forced to have sex with the priest who consummates the marriage between the girl and the deity. A ritually enslaved girl may also be forced to have sex with multiple sexual partners who believe that they become cleansed by having sex with her. The girls are also rendered physically weak by the pregnancies, births and, on occasion, abortions that they undergo. As a result of having multiple sexual partners the girls suffer from reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases. Unable to leave or seek help, they are often socially marginalized, with few support systems. This contributes to a lack of confidence and low self-esteem, perpetuating subordination.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 92
- Paragraph text
- In some cases, although laws may be in place to protect women and girls from servile marriage, the authorities fail to prosecute the perpetrators. Consequently, victims do not seek help from the police or judiciary as they fear further abuse from Government authorities or being forcibly returned to their husbands. According to a 2008 report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, between 70 and 80 per cent of Afghan marriages are forced, and 57 per cent are child marriages where one of the spouses is under the age of 16 years. In 2009, Afghanistan enacted legislation on the elimination of violence against women, in order to criminalize servile marriage and ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. The law does not, however, address how authorities should treat a woman who runs away to escape the offences criminalized under the law. Consequently, girls and women who flee servile marriage are arrested and often convicted of intent to have sex outside marriage.
- 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
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 86
- Paragraph text
- Girls and women who seek to leave servile marriage may be victims of acid attacks or honour-related killings. Acid attacks, which involve the use of sulphuric acid to disfigure or kill, have been reported in Asia, Europe and North and Latin America.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Harmful Practices
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Other forms of ritual slavery in which a girl is given to a shrine and married to the gods are practised in parts of West Africa. The girl is enslaved to atone for the real or alleged sins of a male relative. There is a belief that gods often punish a person's sin by causing the deaths of family members until the sin is pardoned. Until the early eighteenth century, livestock or other gifts were given to the priests in atonement. As girls could be used as domestic help and as sexual partners, priests began taking young virgins as reparation instead. A girl is expected to serve a priest for a certain period, depending upon the severity of the crime and the policy of the shrine. The girl's family can redeem her after that period, but the priest demands a high price. If the priest dies, the girl becomes the property of his successor. If the girl dies without her family redeeming her, her family is obligated to replace her with another virgin, meaning that the cycle can continue for generations. Enslaved girls and women are forced to live in inhumane conditions. They are expected to work in the fields and the local market and also provide sexual services to the priests. They are beaten into submission if they resist (E/CN.4/2002/83, para. 42).
- 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 modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Domestic violence includes physical and sexual violence, and may be committed by the wife's spouse, in-laws or other family members. According to UNICEF, women and girls who marry while aged under 18 years are less educated, more likely to experience domestic violence and believe that their husbands are fully justified in beating them than their peers who marry later. In Kenya, 36 per cent of girls who married while aged under 18 years believed that a man was sometimes justified in beating his wife, compared to 20 per cent of married women. Girls are also less likely to participate in discussions concerning family planning.
- 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
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- As with domestic violence, it is difficult to obtain accurate figures of the numbers of girls and women in servile marriage. Statistics for early marriage, however, can be used as an indication. According to UNICEF, adolescent marriages (where one or both spouses are below the age of 19 years) commonly occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In those regions, most marriages take place between the ages of 15 and 18 years. UNICEF suggests that early marriages are often considered to be a way to protect girls, and even sometimes boys, from sexual predation, promiscuity and social ostracism. In some communities, parents perceive girls as wealth.
- 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
- Adolescents
- Boys
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2012
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Servile marriage 2012, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- If a woman refuses marriage, she can be subject to character assassination or kidnapping by the man or his family to force her into marriage or to rape her. Bride kidnapping, a practice by which a bride is forcefully abducted and married, sometimes occurs in Kyrgyzstan and is often accompanied by physical and sexual violence (CEDAW/C/KGZ/CO/3, paras. 21 and 22). In many cases, girls and women endure years of constant abuse that sometimes leads to death at the hands of their relatives, their husbands or their husbands' families. Girls and women are also encouraged or forced by their husbands or their husbands' families to commit suicide.
- 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 modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- Servile marriage and domestic servitude are two forms of contemporary slavery that disproportionately affect women and girls. In a previous report, the Special Rapporteur defined servile marriage as an arrangement "in which a spouse is reduced to a commodity over whom any or all the powers of ownership are attached" (A/HRC/21/41, summary). Practices such as polygamy and "bride price", especially when coupled with the prevalence of domestic violence, are possible indicators of servile marriage. Women's bodies are directly tied to a family's honour in many cultures, and if a girl refuses to marry, "she can be subject to character assassination or kidnapping by the man or his family to force her into marriage or to rape her" (ibid., para. 71). There is little to no legal protection for women in these situations in many countries. Some countries have gone so far as to enact legislation that acquits perpetrators of rape if they marry their victim. If a woman enters into a servile marriage, she essentially becomes a slave to her husband and his family.
- 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
- 2013
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Children working in the mines and quarries are vulnerable to physical, sexual, moral and social harm. Artisanal mining and quarrying is inherently informal and illegal -as either it costs too much to get the legal permit to mine or there is no need to get a permit as the law is not enforced. These "frontier communities" are riddled with violence, crime, trafficking in young girls and women for sexual exploitation, prostitution, drug and alcohol use (ibid.). There have been reports that children are given drugs so that they are able to fearlessly extract minerals underground or underwater. Children also take drugs and alcohol in the belief that it makes them stronger and as a result of peer pressure. The drug abuse (particularly amphetamines and marijuana) and alcohol (commercial and/or local brew) destroy their health and keep them in the vicious circle of poverty. Children who arrive alone to work in this sector are even more vulnerable to abuses (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)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Poverty
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Girls
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2011
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- Girls, especially unaccompanied girls, working in and around the mines and quarries are vulnerable to rape and sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation can start from the age of 9 but many of the girls involved are aged between 13 and 17 years. In some mining communities like those in Burkina Faso and Niger, it is believed that male child miners will have greater luck in the mining pits if they have sexual intercourse with a virgin or have unprotected sexual intercourse and do not wash before going underground (see E/C.12/MDG/CO/2). Child prostitution also occurs in the mining communities. For example, in Ghana, girls as young as 12 living in gold-mining communities are found in prostitution (ibid.). A United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) study on sexual exploitation of children around mines and quarries found four main types of exploitation: prostitution on a regular basis, occasional prostitution, companionship or temporary unions, and forced prostitution.
- 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
- 2011
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
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.
- 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
- Date modified
- Feb 13, 2020
Paragraph