Anti-slavery action speaks louder than words

London: Commonwealth nations must not only denounce modern slavery but take the lead on global efforts to eradicate the trade by 2030 by strengthening laws, working with businesses and protecting women and girls from being enslaved, activists said yesterday.

The countries should use the platform to commit to collaborate to end a crime estimated to affect 40 million people globally and that raises annual profits of $150 billion, said Urmila Bhoola, the leading UN official on slavery. “Given the vast disparities between Commonwealth states, there is a need for collaboration,” Bhoola, the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, said at a panel. “This is an urgent imperative lives are at stake.” More than half of the world’s slavery victims are estimated to live across the Commonwealth, yet only three of its states have ratified a 2014 UN treaty to end forced labour, according to a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI).

While 80 per cent of Commonwealth nations have criminalised human trafficking, at least half have penalties that are either too lenient - in terms of fines and jail sentences - or inhumane such as capital punishment, said the Walk Free Foundation. “There is a huge gap in reality between the number of slavery crimes and the number of cases registered and brought to court,” said India’s 2014 Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a top child’s rights and anti-trafficking activist.