THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

AND SLAVERY

-What is the Universal Declaration (UDHR)?-What does it say about slavery?-What is contemporary slavery?

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WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Human rights are the rights and freedoms that we all have.

• Some human rights are based on our physical needs. The right to life. To food. To shelter.

• Other human rights protect us. The right to be free from torture, cruel treatment and abuse.

• Human rights are also there to ensure we develop to our fullest potential. The right to education. To work. To participate in your community.

Everybody has human rights. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what language you speak or what religion you belong to. You have a duty to respect the rights of others, just as they have a duty to respect yours. Nobody can take your rights away.

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WHERE DO RIGHTS COME FROM?

Human rights are based on the values of:

• Dignity

• Justice

• Respect

• Equality

Human rights were officially recognised as values by the world when the United Nations was set up.

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WHAT IS THE UNITED NATIONS?

• The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation that was e e e e e established in 1945, the year the Second World War ended.

• Its founders hoped it would be able to prevent catastrophes like the e Holocaust from happening in the future, and help to build a safer, fairer world for people everywhere.

• Therefore, the UN’s three main aims are: Protect human rightsSecure international peaceEliminate poverty

• In 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the most famous human rights agreement in the world. It contains 30 human rights, each of which corresponds to particularhuman need.

According to the UDHR, you have the right to:

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HOW DOES THE UDHR PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS?

The UDHR is an international statement of values that has inspired over 80 treaties containing human rights laws. Together, these treaties form an international system of human rights that protects people around the world, enables the UN to monitor whether rights are respected in countries, and allows individuals to call for their rights to be respected.

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THE PRINCIPLES OF THE UDHR

• Universality: human rights belong to EVERYONE in the world

• Equality: All rights are EQUALLY important

• Inalienability: Rights CANNOT BE TAKEN AWAY – they can only be limited through the law (for example, convicted criminal will have his or her right to freedom of movement limited through a prison sentence)

• Indivisibility and interdependence: All rights are NECESSARY and they all depend on each other

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WHAT IS SLAVERY?

• More than 20 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide.

• 11.4 million are women and girls• 9.5 million are men and boys

• They are forced to work -- through mental or physical threats

• They are owned or controlled by an 'employer', usually through mental or physical abuse or threats of abuse;

• They are dehumanised, treated as a commodity or bought and sold as 'property’

• They are physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their movement

• The majority – around 19 million – are exploited by private individuals or companies, who make about US150 billion in illegal profits worldwide. The rest are used by the state or rebel groups.

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SOME INTERNATIONAL LAWS ON SLAVERY• The Slavery Convention, 1926: slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.

• International Labour Organisation (ILO) – Forced Labour Convention, 1930: defines forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of a penalty” and calls on countries to suppress it in all its forms within the shortest possible period.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948: no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

• UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, The Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956: debt bondage (when labour is demanded as a means to pay off a loan), serfdom, forced marriage and the delivery of a child for the exploitation of that child are all slavery-like practices and require criminalisation and abolishment.

• UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, and protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in people – Introduction by UN Secretary-General: I believe the trafficking of persons, particularly women and children, for forced and exploitative labour, including for sexual exploitation, is one of the most egregious violations of human rights that the United Nations now confronts.

• ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999: defines ‘worst forms’ as slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflicts, prostitution, pornography and illicit activities (e.g. drug trafficking). It calls for immediate and comprehensive action by states.

• ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention: forced or compulsory labour violates the human rights and dignity of millions of women and girls, men and boys

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