100 years after States committed to complete abolition, slavery is still not a criminal offence in almost half of the world's countries, according to research by the University of Nottingham, which has launched new model legislation providing a roadmap for governments to close legal gaps on slavery and severe exploitation.
The Anti-Slavery Model Legislation – developed by Dr Katarina Schwarz, Associate Director of the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab and Associate Professor in the School of Law, in partnership with Professor Jean Allain at Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University in Australia – provides a framework for States to review and reform their laws to bring them into line with international legal commitments.
It was launched at the United Nations Office in Bangkok last week, on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 1926 Slavery Convention – the first international treaty outlawing slavery and slave trade everywhere in the world. The model law was developed in response to the findings from the Anti-Slavery in Domestic Legislation Database, which revealed the scale of gaps in national laws addressing slavery and the most severe forms of human exploitation.
The launch comes at a time of converging crises and conflicts, a major focus of discussion at the UN hosted event. Conflict and crisis can intensify risks of slavery and severe exploitation, while also placing greater pressure on the legal and institutional systems intended to prevent and respond to them. The launch was supported by the new Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War, led by the University of Nottingham and King's College London, where Dr Schwarz leads research examining the relationship between slavery, conflict and law.
A century after the international community came together to commit to a free world, millions of people are still subjected to slavery every day. Where people often assume that the fundamental work of establishing legal prohibitions has already been done, the fact is that many States have yet to meet their basic legal commitments."
"The call to action to realise the promise of 1926 is urgent, and we hope that the Antislavery Model Legislation will provide States and advocates with a powerful tool to address the remaining legal gaps. Our intention is not to name and shame, but to call on all States to review and reform their laws to help deliver a world free from slavery."
While legal ownership of people has been abolished in every country in the world over the past two centuries, the database found that 49 per cent of countries – 94 States – have yet to make enslaving another person a criminal offence.
It also found that 58 per cent of States do not have penal sanctions for forced labour, while 93 per cent have not enacted legislation specifically criminalising servitude.
The findings highlight the gap between States' international commitments and their domestic laws, and provide a call to action for governments to address the remaining legal deficiencies. The Anti-Slavery Model Legislation provides a practical framework for doing so. It contains example provisions covering the core exploitation crimes of slavery, servitude, forced labour, and institutions and practices similar to slavery.
States can consider incorporating the model provisions directly into domestic legislation or adapting them to reflect their own legal and national contexts.
Many people will be surprised to find out that 100 years on from the adoption of the Slavery Convention, many States have still not taken the minimum necessary step of passing legislation to prohibit slavery. The model law shows the way for States to do this minimum - develop legislation."
The provisions are accompanied by detailed commentaries tracing the development of each concept in international law through treaties and case law. The commentaries explain the international legal obligations to which States have committed themselves.
Four Guiding Principles provide further context for implementation, including the need for legislation to have effective jurisdictional reach and to recognise States' duties to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators, while ensuring remedies are available to victims.
