United Nations Radio

Contemporary Forms of Slavery

Today, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, serves as a reminder to all that millions of people around the world continue suffer from this form of abuse. Gerry Adams spoke with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Ms. Gulnara Shahinian, who explains why we
should be concerned:

Shahinian: Unfortunately, many of us think that slavery is left in the past. Slavery is not in the past. Slavery is a phenomenon that exists all over the world. And each of us should be very much concerned on its proliferation and forms it takes.

Adams: What are some of those forms?

Shahinian: It is very interesting that old forms like bonded labour, serfdom, forced marriages - they are coming back in a new world, in a modern world in an even more cruel form. And we can speak about trafficking. We can speak about forced labour in all its expressions. And I recently was also in a country visit, was paying a country visit to Haiti and Mauritania - they are existing the most terrible forms of child labour, restavik children and in Mauritania, there is still existing the oldest form of slavery when women serve the master without receiving nothing and works as it was many centuries ago, To the master and her future and her life - everything is the master.

Adams: We have an international day each year and people raise concerns about slavery, after that day is over we go back to not thinking about slavery again. What do you think we can do to have an impact on slavery?

Shahinian: Everyone should think about this, not only governments, civil society, church organizations, media. Everyone has his own responsibility and its own role to play to stop this phenomenon. It is shameful when we are living in the age when we speak about human genome or creating such a fantastic discovery for the world in order to make the lives of people easier. At the same time, we deny all of the rights of people.

Adams: You mentioned that you had an opportunity to speak with slaves. What did you say to them and how did they respond?

Shahinian: There were women who spoke about what terrible lives they had - how different the life of slaves is from the life of those members of the family. Many people were saying, "Oh the slaves are living because it's a historical tradition like members of the family." Of course not! These women were working 18 hours a day in the most horrible conditions.

Narrator; Gulnara Shahinian, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, speaking to Gerry Adams.