1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery | |
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Signed | 7 September 1956 |
Location | Geneva, Switzerland |
Effective | 30 April 1957 |
Condition | Fulfilled |
Signatories | 35 |
Parties | 124 (as at March 2018) [1] (Convention and subsequent Protocol) |
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Forced labour and slavery |
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The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the full title of which is the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, is a 1956 United Nations treaty which builds upon the 1926 Slavery Convention, which is still operative and which proposed to secure the abolition of slavery and of the slave trade, and the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, which banned forced or compulsory labour, by banning debt bondage, serfdom, child marriage, servile marriage, and child servitude.
The Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery was preceded by the 1926 Slavery Convention. In 1932 the Committee of Experts on Slavery was established to investigate the efficiency of the 1926 Slavery Convention, [2] which in turn resulted in the establishment of the permanent Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery (ACE). [3] The global investigation of the occurrence of slavery and slave trade performed by the ACE between 1934 and 1939 was interrupted by the outbreak of the World War II, but it was the foundation for the work against slavery performed by the UN after the war. [4]
When the League of Nations was succeeded by the United Nations (UN) after the end of the World War II, Charles Wilton Wood Greenidge of the Anti-Slavery International worked for the UN to continue the investigation of global slavery conducted by the ACE of the League, and in February 1950 the Ad hoc Committee on Slavery of the United Nations was inaugurated. [5] By the 1950s, legal chattel slavery and slave trade was formally abolished by law in almost the entire world, with the exception of the Arabian Peninsula. Chattel slavery was still legal in Saudi Arabia, in Yemen, in the Trucial States and in Oman, while slavery in Qatar was abolished in 1952, and slaves were supplied for the Arabian Peninsula by the Red Sea slave trade.
The UN Committee on Slavery presented its raport of global slavery to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1951; it was published in 1953, and a Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery was written in 1954, and introduced in 1956. [6]
In the 1950s, in connection to the Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, Barnett Janner described Saudi Arabia and Yemen as the only remaining states were slavery was still a legal institution: [7]
The shipping of slaves occurs in only one particular area of the world, in the seas around Arabia. The warships most likely to search such slavers would be British, and I feel sure that there would not be any abuse of the right to search. I am sorry that we gave up the fight for that right. As far as I know, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only States in the world where chattel slavery is still a legal institution. Only a year or so ago a French Deputy—the person, I assume, to whom my hon. Friend referred—investigated the situation and found that every year ignorant Africans are lured on by agents to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. They are not told, of course, that they need a Saudi Arabian visa. When they arrive in Saudi Arabia without a visa they are arrested and put into prison for a few days and then handed over to licensed slave dealers. In addition, raids are made in Baluchistan and the Sheikdoms of the Persian Gulf and people are captured and carried off by land and sea, taken to small Saudi Arabian ports and sold in slave markets.
Article 1: The parties commit to abolish and abandon debt bondage, serfdom, servile marriage and child servitude.
Article 2: The parties commit to enacting minimum ages of marriage, encouraging registration of marriages, and encouraging the public declaration of consent to marriage.
Article 3: Criminalisation of slave trafficking.
Article 4: Runaway slaves who take refuge on flag vessels of parties shall thereby ipso facto attain their freedom.
Article 5: Criminalisation of the marking (including mutilation and branding) of slaves and servile persons.
Article 6: Criminalisation of enslavement and giving others into slavery.
Article 7: Definitions of "slave", "a person of servile status" and "slave trade"
Article 9: No reservations may be made to this convention.
Article 12: This Convention shall apply to all non-self-governing-trust, colonial and other non-metropolitan territories to the international relations of which any State Party is responsible.
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate slaves around the world.
Anti-Slavery International, founded as the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, is an international non-governmental organisation, registered charity and advocacy group, based in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest international human rights organisation, and works exclusively against slavery and related abuses.
Slavery in Sudan began in ancient times, and had a resurgence during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). During the Trans-Saharan slave trade, many Nilotic peoples from the lower Nile Valley were purchased as slaves and brought to work elsewhere in North Africa and the Orient by Nubians, Egyptians, Berbers and Arabs.
The 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is an international treaty created under the auspices of the League of Nations and first signed on 25 September 1926. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 9 March 1927, the same day it went into effect. The objective of the convention is to confirm and advance the suppression of slavery and the slave trade and was extended in 1956 with the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, under the auspices of the United Nations.
Slavery in Ethiopia existed for centuries, going as far back as 1495 BC and ending in 1942. There are also sources indicating the export of slaves from the Aksumite Empire. The practice formed an integral part of Ethiopian society. Slaves were traditionally drawn from the Nilotic groups inhabiting Ethiopia's southern hinterland and Oromos. War captives were another source of slaves, though the perception, treatment and duties of these prisoners was markedly different. religious law banned Christian slave masters from taking christians as slaves, slaves were from Muslim and other non-Christian groups.
The Somali slave trade existed as a part of the East African slave trade. To meet the demand for menial labor, Bantus from southeastern Africa slaves were exported from Zanzibar and were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in East Africa and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia by the somalis. Ethiopians, especially Amharas and Tigrayans were also captured and sold to traders from Arabia, India, Greece, and beyond.
Slavery in international law is governed by a number of treaties, conventions and declarations. Foremost among these is the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) that states in Article 4: “no one should be held in slavery or servitude, slavery in all of its forms should be eliminated.”
Slavery in Yemen was formally abolished in the 1960s. However, it has been reported that enslavement still occurred in the 21st-century.
The history of slavery in the Muslim world began with institutions inherited from pre-Islamic Arabia.
Legal chattel slavery existed in the area which was later to become Oman from antiquity until the 1970s. Oman was united with Zanzibar from the 1690s until 1856, and was a significant center of the Indian Ocean slave trade from Zanzibar in East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, a central hub of the regional slave trade, which constituted a large part of its economy.
For most of its history, Qatar practiced slavery until its abolition in 1952. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves. Chattel slavery was succeeded by the Kafala system. The kafala system has been abolished in Qatar since December 2016. However, concerns still remain about workers' rights and employers retaining considerable power over workers.
Legal Chattel slavery existed in Saudi Arabia until the 1960s.
The Red Sea slave trade, sometimes known as the Islamic slave trade, Arab slave trade, or Oriental slave trade, was a slave trade across the Red Sea trafficking Africans from the African continent to slavery in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East from antiquity until the mid-20th-century.
Chattel slavery existed in the territory that would become the modern state of Indonesia until the 20th century. Due to the fact that the Maritime South Asian archipelago corresponding to Indonesia was not unified until 1949, the history of slavery in Indonesia is not uniform, but did have common features and a somewhat common history.
Chattel slavery existed in the Trucial States (1892–1971), which later formed the United Arab Emirates. The Trucial States consisted of the Sheikdoms Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah, and Ras Al Khaimah. The region was mainly supplied with enslaved people from the Indian Ocean slave trade, but humans were also trafficked to the area from Hejaz, Oman and Persia. Slaves were used in the famous pearl fish industry and later in the oil industry, as well as sex slaves and domestic servants. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves.
Open chattel slavery existed in Kuwait until the 1940s. Slavery was formally abolished in Kuwait in 1949. In practice, slavery was not actually abolished as such, but the law no longer recognized it after 1949, which meant that every slave who applied for manumission was guaranteered to be freed. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves. Slavery of people from Africa and East Asia was succeeded by the modern Kafala system of poor workers from the same region were slaves had previously been imported.
Open slavery existed in Bahrain until the 1930s. Slavery was formally abolished in Bahrain in 1937. Slavery ended earlier in Bahrain than in any other Gulf state, with the exception of Iran and Iraq. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves. Slavery of people from Africa and East Asia was succeeded by the modern Kafala system of poor workers from the same region were slaves had previously been imported.
The Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery (ACE) was a permanent committee of the League of Nations, inaugurated in 1933. It was the first permanent slavery committee of the League of Nations, which was founded after a decade of work addressing the issue of slavery by temporary committees within the League.
The Temporary Slavery Commission (TSC) was a committee of the League of Nations, inaugurated in 1924.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery was a committee of the United Nations (UN), created in 1950. It investigated the occurrence of slavery on a global level. Its final report resulted in the introduction of the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery of 1956.