Speech

UN Human Rights Council 51: UK statement on slavery resolution

Ambassador Simon Manley, Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, introduced the resolution on the renewal of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences.

This was published under the 2022 Truss Conservative government
Simon Manley CMG

Thank you, Mr President,

I have the honour to present draft resolution L.30 on the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences on behalf of the Core Group.

At the start of this session, the ILO and IOM informed the international community that 10 million more people are in situations of modern slavery compared to 2016. This means that the global estimate of people in modern slavery is almost 50 million, of which 28 million people are in situations of forced labour and 22 million people are trapped in forced marriages.

These numbers are simply appalling.

Mr President,

The resolution presented today seeks to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences for a further three years. The core group have only made minor technical updates to the text.

This mandate has enjoyed more than 15 years of consensus and long-standing cross-regional support. And these staggering recent figures underline the ongoing need for this mandate to continue.

I sincerely thank all those colleagues who have engaged constructively in the negotiation process on this resolution and, in particular, our more than 50 co-sponsors. I hope that all members of this Council can join consensus on this important issue.

Thank you

Updates to this page

Published 6 October 2022