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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 19 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. B. | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Recommendations to Member States:] Remove any forms of discrimination that negatively impact on the rights of certain groups, including girls, indigenous peoples and migrant children, to an education. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 25 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 23 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In addition to children in domestic servitude and other forms of slavery, the Special Rapporteur is concerned about the uneven implementation, and in some areas retrogression, of the human rights of women as guaranteed under international law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Women are disproportionately affected by forced labour. Of the estimated 21 million people in situations of forced labour, 11.4 million (55 per cent) are women and girls. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Priorities of the new mandate holder 2014, para. 22 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2014 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 24 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 10 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 9 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Women are also more often in charge of children, which adds pressure on them to work and provide for their households. Owing to the need to work, women may be financially obliged to remain in undesirable jobs and thus forced to endure less than ideal working conditions. In many countries, women are also at a disadvantage due to cultural traditions. Finally, women and girls are often denied equal access to education, which makes them less attractive in the labour market and fuels the cycle of poverty and vulnerability to slavery. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 76 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | A UNICEF study on early marriage indicates that girls under the age of 15 years are five times more likely to die during delivery as a result of haemorrhage, sepsis, preeclampsia or eclampsia and obstructed labour than women between the ages of 20 and 24 years. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 10 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 11 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 12 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 35 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In its general recommendation No. 24, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women specifically recommends that States parties enact and effectively enforce laws that prohibit the marriage of girls. In its general recommendation No. 21, the Committee recognizes that forced marriage may exist as a result of cultural or religious beliefs, but maintains that a woman's right to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage is central to her life and to her dignity and equality as a human being and that this must be protected and enforced by law. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 31 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Article 21 (2) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child states that child marriage and the betrothal of girls and boys are to be prohibited and effective action, including legislation, is to be taken to specify the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years. Article 6 of the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa states that no marriage is to take place without the free and full consent of both parties, and requires States to enact appropriate national legislative measures to guarantee that the minimum age of marriage for women is to be 18 years. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 45 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In some communities, honour is connected with virtue, good works, righteous behaviour and obligations to one's parents, older persons and the community. Honour-related killings have often been associated with religious beliefs. These, however, are traditional or cultural practices. Among some Asian tribes, honour (or izzat) is associated with the female body and therefore women and girls must be guarded, protected and passed on to another member of the tribe. A girl or woman dishonours her family and tribe if her body is violated, even by force, and the shame can be cleansed only through her death. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 46 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Family status depends on honour. In patriarchal and patrilineal societies, maintaining the honour of the family is a woman's responsibility. The concept of women as commodities and not as human beings endowed with dignity and rights equal to those of men is deeply embedded in these societies. Women are seen as the property of men and must be obedient and passive, rather than assertive and active. Any assertive behaviour is considered to be an element that would result in an imbalance of power relations within the parameters of the family unit (E/CN.4/2002/83, para. 27). UNICEF reports that in some countries, early marriages are regarded by families as a means of protecting girls from premarital sex that would undermine their honour and that of their families. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 102 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Education has been recognized as one of the most effective ways to delay early marriage and allow for married women to make more informed choices about their health and that of their families. States should establish more schools, recruit qualified teachers (in particular female teachers) and train teachers in subjects such as gender sensitivity, HIV/AIDS and reproductive and sexual health. They should also offer economic support and incentives for girls and their families, such as fee subsidies, scholarships, school supplies, school uniform and conditional cash transfers. There should be proper monitoring and evaluation of such transfers. States should also adopt all appropriate educational measures to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct that foster cultural practices among families that lead to servile marriage. Teachers and other educational staff should be trained to recognize vulnerable girls and react appropriately. Continuing formal education and vocational training for married girls and women should be provided. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 86 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 87 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex features in numerous international human rights instruments in relation to marriage. For example, articles 1 and 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women call for the elimination of discrimination against women in all matters related to marriage and family relations. Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of children to be free from discrimination, including on the grounds of age and sex. In cases where there is a difference between the minimum age for girls and boys to marry, however, the minimum age for girls is always lower than that for boys. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 103 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | States should also increase and improve access to reproductive health services and information, in particular for girls and women, including access to family planning. Health information tailored to young mothers about proper nutrition and care for their health and the health of their babies should be made available. Access to reproductive health care for women and girls in urban and rural areas needs to be increased and improved by ensuring that adequate resources and health-care experts are available. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 60 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 77 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The younger the bride, the more likely it is that she will face serious health complications owing to the physical immaturity of her body at the time of childbirth. A girl with underdeveloped physiology risks incurring an obstetric fistula, a rupture of the vagina, bladder and/or rectum during childbirth that causes persistent leakage of urine and faeces. Girls face a greater risk of health problems associated with repeated pregnancies and childbirth. They also have limited access to information concerning their reproductive health and health care. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 64 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Described below are forms of servile marriage that women and girls experience. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 15 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 75 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 17 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | 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. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 20 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | It is important to note the distinction between servile marriage and arranged marriage. The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery was established by the Economic and Social Council in its decision 16 (LVI) to monitor the existence of slavery and the slave trade in all their practices and manifestations, including slavery-like practices such as servile marriage. The Working Group believed that it was important to highlight the distinction between forced marriage and arranged marriage. Arranged marriages, which exist in many parts of the world, are based on the consent of both parties, whereas forced marriages do not involve the consent of the parties or, at any rate, both of the parties. Any duress in a marriage is a violation of internationally recognized human rights standards and cannot be justified on religious or cultural grounds. The Working Group asserted that the perpetuation of forced and early marriages was a result of gender inequality and lack of both a culture of education for girls and of self-esteem. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 94 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Many communities believe that girls should marry and can never divorce because of cultural, religious and financial factors, among others. Consequently, families and communities resist change. In addition, there is an overwhelming belief that events within a family are private and should not be subject to outside interference. A wife who runs away is not permitted to return to her family and, if she does, she will be stigmatized for having left her husband, no matter how abusive the marriage. In some societies, it is believed that the husband has every right to discipline his wife and that there should be no interference in marital matters. The female spouse is often made to feel as thought she is at fault and must learn to be a better wife (i.e. more subservient). | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | From an early age, girls are brought up and viewed as commodities to be used to solidify family links and preserve honour, in addition to financial assets that can improve the family's economic status. Discriminatory attitudes within the family are reinforced in the community and throughout the girl's life. Complicity by other women in the family and the community strengthens the concept of women as property and embeds the perception that violence against female family members is to be tolerated and remedied privately within the family environment. From the beginning of the marriage, a spouse is treated not as an individual but as a commodity, given that his or her consent to the marriage is not required. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 41 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of the victims of trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, concluded that there was a clear recognition in United Nations and regional agreements, as well as in national legislation, that many women and girls around the world lived under conditions where, owing to harmful patriarchal, traditional, customary and/or religious practices, they could not fully exercise their human rights to marry or refuse marriage; to full sexual autonomy; to refuse childbearing; to leave partners, including abusive partners, while retaining custody of their children, and to do so safely and without legal, economic, social, political and cultural repercussions (A/HRC/4/23, para. 38). | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 |