International Day of Abolition of Slavery 2023; December 2nd.

FORUM: "Honouring the victims of slavery and highlighting the legacy of the slave trade." International Day of Abolition of Slavery 2023. Globally, 50 million people are trapped today in different forms of modern slavery, such as forced labour, trafficking in persons or domestic servitude. Ending Modern Slavery requires bold action by frontline leaders, donors, governments and a movement of collaborators. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #ModernSlavery, #forcedlabour, #EndHumanTrafficking, #2December, #SlaveryAbolitionDay.

“Slavery is both a historic horror and a contemporary outrage,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday's Abolition of Slavery Day, urging to fight against modern slavery in all its forms.

EVENTS: 74th anniversary of the Convention for the suppression of the Traffic in persons.

From27 - 29 November 2023 was held the 12th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights at the Palace of Nations in UN Geneva.

Risks of forced labour are of grave concern and a stark reality in global and complex Supply Chains, including in public procurement. At the #UNForumBHR, we presented our efforts focused on combating Human Trafficking in our own supplychains and explained how, at the
OSCE, we walk the talk.

Day 3 (Room XX) - Closing plenary - 12th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Brief description of the session:This session draws the 2023 annual Forum on Business and Human Rights to a close. The aim of the session is to reflect on the Forum's theme 'Towards Effective Change in Implementing Obligations, Responsibilities and Remedies'. It will do so by considering the roles which each stakeholder plays in ensuring the effective implementation of the UNGPs and promoting respect for human rights in business activities. In particular, there will be a focus on effective remedies and what is needed to implement them. It will also be an opportunity to review what has been heard during the Forum and offer ideas for the ways forward.

Key objectives of the session:

• Reflect on the Forum's theme of 'Towards Effective Change in Implementing Obligations, Responsibilities and Remedies';
• Analyse how different stakeholders can act to ensure the effective implementation of the UNGPs and promote respect for human rights in business activities;
• Discuss how judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms, State-based and non-State based, can ensure access to effective remedy;
• Identify opportunities and obstacles for moving forward to make effective change; and
• Share positive practical examples of actions taken, including those that have been featured during the UN Forum.

EXHIBIT: The "Ark of Return" at UNHQ honours the victims of slavery and highlights the legacy of the slave trade.

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2012

United Nations Secretary-General's Message for 2012

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2012

Eighty-five years have passed since the entry into force of the Slavery Convention, yet this dehumanizing practice has acquired new manifestations in the 21st century.

Every day, in all regions of the world, women are trafficked, sold and locked in brothels for sexual exploitation. Little girls are forcibly married, sexually abused and used as domestic workers.  Children work in mines, setting explosives and breathing toxic dust.  Others are abducted and turned into soldiers, obliged to kill and torture.  Men, separated from their families, are forced to work in plantations or locked in clandestine factories without any salary to repay never-ending debts.

The movement against slavery brought together the international community to declare that slavery practices constitute an affront to our common humanity and that no human being should be another’s property.  Today, governments, civil society and the private sector must unite to eradicate all contemporary forms of slavery.
We have important tools with which to advance this goal.  The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, for example, extends humanitarian, financial and legal assistance to victims. Over the past two decades, the Fund has assisted tens of thousands of victims of slavery in more than 90 countries. Yet the Fund is in dire need of funding to fulfil its mandate and respond to the growing need.

On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, I call on governments and business enterprises to contribute to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and its activities in support of victims worldwide.  Together, let us do our utmost for the millions of victims throughout the world who are held in slavery and deprived of their human rights and dignity.

Ban Ki-moon