Defining contemporary forms of slavery: Updating a venerable NGO

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 70-128

  Welch, Claude E ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HUMAN RIGHTS; INTERNATIONAL LAW; NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION; SLAVERY; UNITED NATIONS;

ENGLAND; EURASIA; EUROPE; LONDON [ENGLAND]; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE;

EID: 68149178633     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.0.0050     Document Type: Article

References (227)

1. JOHN HARRIS, A CENTURY OF E MANCIPATION 217 (1933). Bales and Robbins give a different figure, indicating that none of the "more than 300 laws and agreements" has been effective. Kevin Bales & Peter T. Robbins, "No One Shall be Held in Slavery or Servitude": A Critical Analysis of International Slavery Agreements and Concepts of Slavery, 2 HUM. RTS. REV. 18 (2001).
2. The Adivasis are derived from indigenous people living in the India subcontinent prior to the arrival of successive waves of invaders from the Northwest. They have been relegated to the sidelines of society, often living in remote, heavily forested areas. Special legal provisions exist for them, analogous to those for Dalits ("Untouchables").
3. Article 1(1) of the Convention defines slavery as "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised," and calls, in Article 2, "To bring about, progressively and as soon as possible, the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms." Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926, 25 Sept. 1926, 60 L.N.T.S. 253 (entered into force9 Mar. 1927), available athttp://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/ f2sc.htm.
4. Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, Slave Trade and Institutions of Similar Practices, 30 Apr. 1956, 226 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force30 Apr. 1957), available athttp://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ slavetrade.htm.
5. For details, see Anne Gallagher, Human Rights and the New UN Protocols on Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: A Preliminary Analysis, 23 HUM. RTS. Q. 975 (2001).
6. In chronological order, these include the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted21 Dec. 1965, 660 U.N.T.S. 195 (entered into force4 Jan. 1969) (ICERD), reprinted in5 I.L.M. 352 (1966);
7. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), adopted16 Dec. 1966, G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force3 Jan. 1976); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted16 Dec. 1966, G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (entered into force23 Mar. 1976);
8. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted18 Dec. 1979, G.A. Res. 34/180, U.N. GAOR, 34th Sess., Supp. No. 46, U.N. Doc. A/34/46 (1980) (entered into force3 Sept. 1981), 1249 U.N.T.S. 13, reprinted in19 I.L.M. 33 (1980);
9. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), adopted10 Dec. 1984, G.A. Res. 39/46, U.N. GAOR, 39th Sess., Supp. No. 51, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1985) (entered into force26 June 1987), reprinted in23 I.L.M. 1027 (1984), substantive changes noted in24 I.L.M. 535 (1985);
10. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted20 Nov. 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, U.N. GAOR, 44th Sess., Supp. No. 49, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989) (entered into force2 Sept. 1990), reprinted in28 I.L.M. 1448 (1989).
11. In their excellent historical and legal summary, Michael Dottridge (Director of Anti-Slavery) and Professor David Weissbrodt (member UN Sub-Commission and then Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery) omitted this understudied treaty, asserting instead that formal reporting started with the ICCPR. (ICERD was adopted 1965, a year before the two International Covenants.) Michael Dottridge&David Weissbrodt, Review of the Implementation of and Follow-up to the Convention on Slavery, 42 GERMAN Y.B. INT'L L. 242 (1999). The report is also published in Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (23d Sess.), U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 50th Sess., Agenda Item 6, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1998/14 (1998).
12. For a brief survey of reporting under this agreement, see Claude E. Welch, Jr., Ratifying and Implementing ICERD: Weaknesses in State Reporting, inRENDERING JUSTICE TO THE VULNERABLE: LIBER AMICORUM IN HONOUR OF THEO VAN BOVEN 289 (Fons Coomans, Fred Grúnfeld, Ingrid Westendorp & Jan Willems eds., 2000).
13. For a general discussion of the significance of reporting, see CLAUDE E. WELCH, JR., PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA: ROLES AND STRATEGIES OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS 140-78 (1995). Reporting as a result of treaty obligations officially predates the ICERD, inasmuch as states were supposed to provide information annually to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The response rate was poor, and the Commission was too overwhelmed with other responsibilities to analyze what arrived. In addition, the Commission became involved in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the subsequent international covenants. On the other hand, ILO conventions (some dating to the 1920s) require governments to submit information annually to its Geneva-based experts. SeeVirginia A. Leary, Lessons from the Experience of the International Labour Organisation, inTHE UNITED NATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: A CRITICAL EVALUATION 580 (Philip Alston ed., 1992).
14. Widespread agreement exists that (in Rassam's words): "The prohibition against slavery and the slave trade is one of the most well-established customary rules that has been elevated to the status of jus cogensin international law." In other words, all countries have the responsibility, whether or not they have ratified the treaties discussed in this article, to take steps against slavery in its various manifestations. A. Yasmine Rassam, Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the Evolution of the Prohibition of Slavery and the Slave Trade under Customary International Law, 39 VA. J. INT'L L. 303, 310 (1999), and the numerous sources cited therein. The important erga omnesobligation, arising from a 1956 decision of the International Court of Justice, is briefly discussed in id.at 306 n.10, 310 n.23.
15. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted17 July 1998, art. 7, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.183/9, 2187 U.N.T.S. 90 (entered into force1 July 2002).
16. MARGARET E. KECK & KATHRYN SIKKINK, ACTIVISTS BEYOND BORDERS: ADVOCACY NETWORKS IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS (1998).
17. For an invaluable source based on thorough archival research, see SUZANNE MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (2003). In terms of nomenclature, Anti-Slavery traces its corporate history to the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (established 1839). This merged in 1909 with the Aborigines Protection Society (which had been founded in Great Britain two years before the BFASS, drawing on many of the same supporters and concerns);its official new name became the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society. The name was changed in 1947 to the Anti-Slavery Society and in 1990 to Anti-Slavery International for the Protection of Human Rights. In 1995, the name was shortened to Anti-Slavery International. Since 1999, the organization has referred to itself simply as Anti-Slavery. I have used this latter name throughout this article, irrespective of time period. WILLIAM KOREY, NGOs AND THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: "A CURIOUS GRAPEVINE" 118 (1998) mistakenly dates the BFASS-ARPS merger as having occurred in 1846.
18. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 7.
19. I use "Sub-Commission" as shorthand. For several years, this body was known formally as the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
20. Suzanne Miers, the eminent historian of slavery, correctly points to the absence of political will among UN members as the major problem. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at xii.
21. HARRIS, supranote 1, at 232.
22. The major exceptions in the early twenty-first century were Mauritania and Sudan, although for quite different reasons. For brief discussion, see Joel Forbes Quirk, The Anti-Slavery Project: Linking the Historical and Contemporary, 28 HUM. RTS. Q. 565,572-74 (2006).
23. KEVIN BALES, DISPOSABLE PEOPLE: NEW SLAVERY IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY 8 (1999).
24. SeeQuirk, The Anti-Slavery Project, supranote 16.
25. For example, 800 petitions urging the abolition of the slave trade and bearing almost one million signatures were sent to Parliament. HOWARD TEMPERLEY, BRITISH ANTISLAVERY 1833-1870, at 8 (1972). Keck and Sikkink call these efforts "clearly a mass movement": approximately 400,000 persons signed petitions against the slave trade in 1791-92 (one of every eleven adults); 750,000 persons in 1814 (one of every eight adults); and one of every seven adults in 1833-twice as many as voters in the historically significant 1832 elections. KECK & SIKKINK, supranote 10, at 44.
26. Huge gaps existed, however, the most noteworthy being India. Chartered Companies (operating primarily in Africa) were also exempted.
27. Email from Joel Forbes Quirk to Claude E. Welch, Jr. (12 Oct. 2006) [hereinafter Quirk email].
28. "Apprentice" programs characterized the Caribbean. The Emancipation Act of 1833 did not apply in India, ruled at that time by the East India Company. Although officially 1,000,000 people "were in various forms of servitude," Miers observes that (with more recent research) the actual figure was closer to 9,000,000. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 30.
29. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at xii.
30. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 30-31.
31. At its inception, Anti-Slavery bore the more awkward title of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). It formed part of a long-standing abolitionist movement in Great Britain, which dated from the late eighteenth century, and which grew, based largely on Quakers. By 1780, Quakers "could provide what no other group seemed capable of: decision, commitment, and most important, organization. It would be difficult to exaggerate the central role Quakers played in initiating and sustaining the first antislavery movements." Davi d Bri on Davi s, The Probl em of Slavery in the Age of Revoluti on 1770-1823, at 215 (1999). Just under half (thirty-two of sixty-seven) of the persons who served on the BFASS General Committee from 1839 to 1868 were Quakers; between half and two-thirds of the organization's income came from members of the Society of Friends. CHRISTINE BOLT, THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION: A STUDY IN ANGLO-AMERICAN CO-OPERATION 1833-77, at 6, 11 (1969). According to Temperley, as much as 90 percent of the funding for abolitionist work in England came from Quakers. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 3, 40.
32. BOLT, supranote 25, at 5.
33. TEMPERLEY, supranote 8, at 67.
34. The minute books of the BFASS and its successors up to the early 1980s can be consulted at Rhodes House, Oxford; I examined those from 1986 on at the Anti-Slavery office in London.
35. TEMPERLEY, supranote 8, at 67.
36. Interview with Mike Dottridge, Director, Anti-Slavery, in London (4 Oct. 2000).
37. Two examples should suffice. In his chapter on relations with abolitionists from 1840 to 1850, Temperley notes that the British regarded anti-slavery movements developing elsewhere as "simple extensions of their own," failing to recognize the distinctive nature of slavery in other societies. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 185. Nearly 150 years later, the General Meeting discussed "Sister-Societies": "The Director said he would like to formalize the relationship with certain organisations overseas so that they would be true partners offering reciprocal services to the Society." Anti-Slavery's chair counseled "extreme caution"; they should be self-administering and self-financing, and work according to the Society's principles. Minutes of a Meeting of the Committee Held at 180 Brixton Road (21 Jan. 1987), at 3, inAnti-Slavery Society, Minute Book, Vol. 18, Anti-Slavery archives (emphasis added).
38. Given the magnitude as well as the political and economic significance of slavery in the United States, it was scarcely surprising that American abolitionists (especially followers of William Lloyd Garrison) followed paths different from the more establishmentoriented British group. The task in the United States was to work against a government bent on compromise with the slave-owning south; the task in Great Britain was to work with a government to utilize its foreign policy pressure. Davis notes that while the British abolitionist movement "bred a new sensitivity to social oppression," its leaders could "contemplate a revolutionary change in status precisely because they were not considering the upward mobility of [British] workers, but rather the rise of distant Negroes to the level of humanity." DAVIS, supranote 25, at 467.
39. Starting salaries for university graduates as of late 2000 were less than £18,000, without benefits, thus below what an aspirant driver for London Transport could earn.
40. "[T]heir most conspicuous characteristic," Davis observed, "was, quite simply, their incredible economic success⋯ . They were natural innovators ⋯ The very embodiment of the capitalist mentality, the English Quakers were in the vanguard of the industrial revolution." Davi s, supranote 25, at 233. Additional details appear in ADAM HOCHSCHILD, BURY THE CHAINS: PROPHETS AND REBELS IN THE FIGHT TO FREE AN EMPIRE'S SLAVES (2005).
41. Colonialism was a political fact of life for early leaders in Anti-Slavery. To the extent they became involved in critiquing imperial practices, their concern lay in ameliorating conditions, and eventually abolishing slavery and slave-like practices entirely. This could arguably be accomplished more rapidly and effectively through a disinterested colonial power than through indigenous leaders potentially committed to maintaining imperial rule through the "civilizing mission."
42. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 83-84.
43. In this respect, the contrast with the United States is especially noteworthy, in which the radical abolitionists under William Lloyd Garrison mobilized politically far more than their British counterparts.
44. There are, of course, exceptions in the organization's early history, notably the Birmingham abolitionists under Joseph Sturge. They were far more radical in their approach than those like Thomas Buxton, who preferred to work quietly through Parliament rather than launch a general appeal to the country to bring pressure on the government. SeeTEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 35-36.
45. This widened mandate resulted in one of the most noted, perhaps notorious, exposés of the organization's history. It involved the enslavement of Peruvian Indians in the Putumayo area (part of the Amazon basin). The horrendous conditions and the effective publicity wielded by Anti-Slavery resulted in strong pressure from British public opinion and the British government. The culprit Amazon Rubber Company was disbanded and its concession cancelled. As Harris commented, the Putumayo rubber gathering scandal "reached a degree of barbarity more intense than in any other known system of slavery." HARRIS, supranote 1, at 170. A parliamentary Select Committee heard twenty-seven witnesses over thirty-six sittings, a detailed report was prepared, and more than 200 arrest warrants were issued, but not a single person of note was ever punished by the Peruvian government. Id. at 170, 176.
46. See alsoC.W.W. GREENIDGE, SLAVERY 166 (1958). This demonstrates the gap between international pressure and national follow-through.
47. Suzanne Miers, Britain, the League of Nations, the United Nations and the Suppression of Slavery, 4-5 (unpublished paper presented at the 1995 meetings of the African Studies Association) (on file in the Anti-Slavery library). Harris "was particularly adept at mobilizing members of parliament by feeding them questions, engineering debates and standing by to provide information. He was an indefatigable organizer of press campaigns, and traveled the country incessantly, speaking to all and sundry, from humble church gatherings to prestigious civic groups." Suzanne Miers, Slavery and the Slave Trade as International Issues 1890-1939, at 19 SLAVERY& ABOLITION 16, 23 (1998);
48. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 63-65.
49. According to an obituary published in The Journal of Negro History, Harris was educated for the ministry and began his career as a missionary in the Congo. ⋯ The great work of his career was his service as secretary of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society. ⋯ The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society became the thorn in the flesh of these imperialists by ⋯ trying to secure a hearing in Parliament against such invasion of the rights of natives as finally deprived them of their land, their labor and their liberty ⋯ he was elected to Parliament himself from North Hackney. In many respects he was a watchman on the wall and helped to make his organization to be feared throughout the British Empire⋯ . On the whole, however, he performed a difficult task well and deserves to go down in history as a friend of humanity.
50. J. NEGRO HIST. 589, 589-90 (1940).
51. To mark the centenary of Parliament's abolition of slavery, Harris published an informative study, Harris, supranote 1, arguing that human rights activism involved three essential stages: gather authenticated facts, arouse public opinion, and persuade governments to take action. Id. at 170. In terms of success, he claimed that nearly 500,000 slaves had been set free by public opinion within the last twenty years. Id. at 232.
52. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 246.
53. Full historical details can be found in MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11.
54. Great Britain concluded bilateral treaties during the 1830s with all major maritime powers except the United States. Between 1815 and 1845, it spent an estimated £21 million on efforts to suppress the slave trade. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 168, 177.
55. Anti-Slavery Reporterstarted monthly publication in 1825. It changed its name to the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporterin 1840. In 1909, its name changed again, this time to Anti-Slavery Report and Aborigines Friend, and it became a quarterly publication. Between 1985 and 1994, it was published annually under the name Anti-Slavery Reporter, and in 1995, it again became a quarterly. Email from Jeff Howarth to Claude E. Welch (13 Nov. 2008) (on file with author).
56. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 21.
57. She also deems the act a "landmark," id. at 23, despite its numerous shortcomings.
58. This example refers to the situation of the Putumayo. The British-controlled Peruvian Amazon Company controlled large tracts of land in a remote region between Peru and Colombia. Anti-Slavery prompted questions in Parliament and the government sent an investigator to the scene, together with a commission set up by the company. Because of World War I, the fact the British representative (Roger Casement) exceeded his instructions and was executed for his involvement in the Irish nationalist movement meant nothing more than a finding of "culpable negligence" emerged against the Company. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 54-56.
59. st century, slavery is allowed to exist. We will continue to fight against slavery until everyone is free.
60. ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, July 2000, at 3.
61. Anti-Slavery is the world's oldest international human rights organisation, established in 1839. It campaigns against all forms of contemporary slavery worldwide and, currently, in addition to working against debt bondage, also works against child prostitution, child domestic servitude, abused domestic servants, various forms of trafficking in woman and children, and forced labour.
62. ANTI-SLAVERY, DEBT BONDAGE (1998) (inside front cover).
63. TEMPERLEY, supranote 19, at 3.
64. Quirk, The Anti-Slavery Project, supranote 16, at 583.
65. Id. at 583-84.
66. The signers included Austria, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Persia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, the Congo Free State, and Zanzibar, plus the United States, Belgium, the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan and Portugal, which signed the Saint Germain-en-Laye treaty in 1919. For the fullest discussion of the Brussels Act, see SUZANNE MIERS, BRITAIN AND THE ENDING OF THE SLAVE TRADE (1975).
67. Article II of the General Act not only moved to abolish the slave trade, but also provided an important rationale for colonial expansion in Africa. It outlined various duties of the stations, inland cruisers, and posts in addition to their "principal task" of "prevent[ing] the capture of slaves and intercept[ing] the routes of the slave-trade," including involving the native population "in agricultural labor and in industrial arts so as to increase their welfare." Slave Trade and Importation into Africa of Firearms, Ammunition, and Spirituous Liquors (General Act of Brussels), 2 July 1890, art. 2(1), 27 Stat. 886, T.S. 383, reprinted in1 TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1776-1949, at 138 (Charles I. Bevans ed., 1968).
68. REGINALD COUPLAND, THE BRITISH ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT 224 (2d ed. 1964).
69. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 23.
70. Forced labor was justified as necessary for infrastructure development. Abuses of it were to play prominent parts in popular exposé literature of the early twentieth century, such as E.D. MOREL, RED RUBBER: THE STORY OF THE RUBBER SLAVE TRADE FLOURISHING ON THE CONGO IN THE YEAR OF GRACE 1906 (Negro Universities Press 1969) (1906);
71. ANDRÉ GIDE, TRAVELS IN THE CONGO (Dorothy Bussy trans., A.A. Knopf 1929) (1927). The French version was originally published in 1927 as VOYAGE AU CONGO: CARNETS DU ROUTE.
72. Miers, Slavery and the Slave Trade, supranote 39, at 19 (1998);
73. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 23.
74. Quirk email, supranote 21.
75. Miers, Britain, the League of Nations, supranote 39, at 4.
76. It was supplanted by the 1919 Convention of St. Germain-en-Laye, which called on the signatories of the Brussels Act "to endeavour to secure the complete suppression of Slavery in all its forms," but provided no means of enforcement and little action occurred. Only a minority of the Brussels signatories ratified the 1919 Convention, whose origins lay in World War I rather than concern about slavery and the slave trade. The British government maintained that the Brussels Act remained in force for signatories that did not accede to the St. Germain convention, but this was a legalism; as the Brussels Act had lapsed de facto if not de jure.
77. Drafters of the Covenant of the League of Nations shared the belief that traditional chattel slavery was confined to very few areas and was naturally disappearing. Anti-slavery activists lobbied unsuccessfully at the Versailles conference for a specific reference in the Covenant to the abolition of slavery. The closest they came appears in Article 23, which bound League members to "secure and maintain humane conditions of labour," as well as "just treatment of the native inhabitants under their control." Miers tartly observes, "These clauses were doubtless intended to be mere platitudes-a sop to whatever remained of European and American public interest in the slavery question." Miers, Britain, the League of Nations, supranote 39, at 4.
78. Miers, Slavery and the Slave Trade, supranote 39, at 23;
79. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 58-65. Harris served briefly as an MP, posing difficult questions. For example, in May 1924, he asked in Parliament whether behind-the-scenes pressure on Ethiopia to abolish chattel slavery would prove more effective than publicity-an example of the never-ending debate of the relative efficacy of quiet diplomacy versus open mobilization. Anti-Slavery Papers, Rhodes House, Oxford, File G446, League of Nations, 1923 Nov. -1925 Mar.
80. On the other hand, the Covenant of the League of Nations-unlike the Charter of the United Nations-made no mention of human rights as one of the objectives for which the organization should strive.
81. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 73-74.
82. Id. at 109.
83. Miers, Slavery and the Slave Trade, supranote 39, at 25. She rephrased this slightly in her 2003 book: "The colonial powers wanted [the Temporary Slavery Commission] to be pliant, short-lived and without the power to conduct investigations." MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 102.
84. Miers, Slavery and the Slave Trade, supranote 39, at 27.
85. The differences between forced and compulsory labor are significant. The latter may involve ordinary citizen obligations, such as national service, that are legally defined and levied on specified groups (e.g., young men at the customary age for military duty); the former could involve labor requisitioned for private, rather than public, purposes. The 1926 Convention called merely on the ratifying states to "endeavour progressively and as soon as possible" to end forced labor. As weak as this is, it was in fact stronger than the British proposal.
86. The proposals from the TSC appear in Dottridge&Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 245. These include serfdom, practices restricting the liberty of the person (e.g., "acquisition of girls by purchase disguised as payment of dowry," "adoption of children with a view to their virtual enslavement," and "all forms of pledging or reducing to servitude of persons for debt or other reason"), and compulsory labor, "public or private, paid or unpaid."
87. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 115.
88. Miers, Britain, the League of Nations, supranote 39, at 11, and MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 100-20, provide an overall analysis of the TSC. The most striking alteration came when the inter-departmental committee rejected Lugard's proposal for the immediate abolition of slavery (not merely of its legal status); instead, it proposed "as speedy an elimination of domestic and other slavery as social conditions will allow." This robbed the protocol of all force because representatives of various colonial governments could plead endless delays. Lugard was disappointed with the emasculation of his draft. On the other hand, British officials believed their watered-down version would simultaneously protect British interests, satisfy almost all critics, maintain the image of British leadership in anti-slavery efforts, and obtain League approval.
89. In Miers' judgment, the 1926 Convention "left much to be desired" as a practical instrument to ending the slave trade and suppressing slavery. She concludes, "Thus, for all the hoopla surrounding its signature, the Convention was and remained a paper tiger-dependent upon the good faith of governments to give it teeth." MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 130. Nonetheless, she concludes, the report of the TSC was a "milestone" in the development of international human rights. Id. at 116.
90. A term adopted from Quirk email, supranote 21.
91. Belgium, France, Italy, and Portugal rejected a recommendation from the eminent Norwegian humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen that annual reports be furnished to the League. As a weak substitute, member states were to inform the League when they enacted relevant laws or regulations. States did accept Nansen's suggestion that disputes under the treaty be judged by the Permanent International Court of Justice.
92. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 115. Their voices, and those of slaves, were "completely lacking," Miers adds. Id.
93. Lord Lugard, Slavery in All Its Forms, 6 J.INT'L AFR. INST. 1, 5-8 (1933), cited inANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY, ITS TASK TODAY 6 (1966). For information about this part of Lugard's long and distinguished colonial career, see MARGERY PERHAM, LUGARD: THE YEARS OF AUTHORITY, 1898-1945 (1960).
94. Miers, Britain, the League of Nations, supranote 39, at 14.
95. Id. at 16. "Where his colleagues were mainly content to defend national interests, he was determined to make the committee effective." Miers, Slavery and the Slave Trade, supranote 39, at 32. She comments that Maxwell also wished to whittle down the scope of the ACE's inquiries to chattel slavery. Other issues included in the 1926 session involved whether issues should be passed to different organizations. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 232.
96. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 219-20.
97. Id. at 221.
98. Miers, Britain, the League of Nations, supranote 39, at 16.
99. Greenidge states simply that the 1926 treaty was "not among" the agreements transferred by the League's Secretary-General to the new UN Secretariat. GREENIDGE, supranote 38, at 191. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 319.
100. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 319. I would add that this belief had an earlier parallel, in the gap between the Brussels Act and the 1926 Convention, only partially bridged by the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye.
101. Slavery also stands near the start of UDHR successor documents such as the ICCPR and the 1956 Supplementary Convention.
102. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted10 Dec. 1948, G.A. Res. 217A (III), U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess. (Resolutions, pt. 1), at 71, pmbl., U.N. Doc. A/810 (1948), reprinted in43 AM. J. INT'L L. 127 (Supp. 1949). The UN General Assembly approved the UDHR without negative vote, but with some abstentions, in December 1948. Saudi Arabia abstained because of clauses about the equality of marriage rights and freedom to change one's religion, South Africa due to racial equality, and the Communist bloc as a result of the greater emphasis on civil and political rights than economic, social, and cultural rights. For an exhaustive treatment, see JOHANNES MORSINK, THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: ORIGINS, DRAFTING, AND INTENT 21-28 (1999)
103. The UDHR was intended as a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." Emphasis lay on "progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance." UDHR, supranote 83.
104. GREENIDGE, supranote 38, at 191. He also commented that all that could be done then was "the time-honoured and usually ineffectual publicity and moral pressure," quoted inMIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 319.
105. The French delegate was René Cassin, a towering figure in human rights and one of the chief drafters of the UDHR. He was clearly more sympathetic than the British representative to the anti-slavery cause. By the mid-1950s, tensions between Anti-Slavery and the British government had become noticeable, due to its critiques of many practices within British colonies.
106. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 324.
107. Id. at 323.
108. I deduce this from a slim bit of evidence in the "restricted" records of the United Nations, namely the length and depth of the reports submitted by the four members. Moises Poblete Troncosco of Chile (the Chair) provided a twelve-page report, based mostly on replies by governments. Jean Vialle of France's nine-page report dealt with central and southern Africa, but (in my view) contributed little. Bruno Lasker, of the United States, had an impressive sixty-five-page analysis on Asia, Oceania, and Australia. However, none of these memoranda were examined by the ad hoc committee in full, nor did its report fulfill the committee's obligation (in Greenidge's view) to assess the nature and extent of institutions resembling slavery. Greenidge's 110-page report (which he carefully labeled a "minority report") is magisterial, perhaps a bit scolding and pedantic in nature. For example, in the table of contents, he carefully indicates whether specified practices fall within the scope of the 1926 Convention (serfdom does not; acquisition of wives by bride price, sham-adoption of children to exploit their labor, and debt bondage are, in his view, prohibited). All these are filed in the UN archives, with the general call number U.N. Doc. E/AC.33, with various R [restricted] numbers: Greenidge's report is R.14, Vialle's R.13, Poblete Tronosco's R.12, and Lasker's R.11. Miers has examined the reports extensively: Greenidge's strongly-held views led to him not being reappointed to the UK delegation, since he was seen as a "busybody," a person with a gift for alienating people who would "obstinately advocate views more extreme [than their own]." MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 328.
109. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery, 2d Sess., U.N. Doc. E/AC.33/13, at 4(1951).
110. Id. at 17.
111. Id. at 19-26.
112. A list of the NGOs can be found in GREENIDGE, supranote 38, at 196.
113. JACK L. GOLDSMITH & ERIC A. POSNER, THE LIMITS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (2005).
114. Draft Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery: Report of the Committee Appointed by Resolution 564 (XIX), U.N. Doc. E/2824,15 (1956) (emphasis added).
115. Id.
116. Id. at 19.
117. Article 12 provides: This Convention shall apply to all non-self-governing trust, colonial and other non-metropolitan territories for the international relations of which any State Party is responsible; the Party concerned shall, subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of this article, at the time of signature, ratification or accession declare the non-metropolitan territory or territories to which the Convention shall apply ipso facto as a result of such signature, ratification or accession.
118. Supplementary Convention, supranote 4, art. 12.
119. Id. at 51-54.
120. Quirk email, supranote 21.
121. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 330, 360. As of early 2007, the Supplementary Convention had been ratified by 120 countries. Perhaps the most noteworthy exceptions were China and Peru (which has frequently been a focus for Anti-Slavery, particularly in the Putumayo basin).
122. C.W.W. Greenidge, mimeographed statement dated June 1957, Anti-Slavery Papers, Rhodes House, Oxford, file MSS.Brit.Emp.S.22 G.777, 1956 Geneva Slavery Conference, at 4.
123. Dottridge & Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 244.
124. A study commissioned by the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights and co-authored by Michael Dottridge and David Weissbrodt gave attention to serfdom, forced labor, debt bondage, migrant workers, trafficking of persons in forms other than prostitution, prostitution (including forced labor, children, and sexual slavery), forced marriage and sale of wives, and child labor and child servitude. Id; at 242.
125. Supplementary Convention, supranote 4, art. 1(a).
126. ILO Convention (No. 131) Concerning Minimum Wage Fixing with Special Reference to Developing Countries, 1970, and accompanying Recommendation No. 135;
127. Dottridge & Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 257. However, as of late 2007, only thirty-two states had ratified it, available athttp://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/ratifce.pl?C117.
128. Supplementary Convention, supranote 4, art. 1(b) (emphasis added).
129. Dottridge&Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 247.
130. I am indebted to Joel Forbes Quirk for this clarification. Quirk email, supranote 21.
131. See, e.g.,ANTI-SLAVERY: CHILDREN IN BONDAGE: SLAVES OF THE SUBCONTINENT (1991);
132. ANTI-SLAVERY, DEBT BONDAGE (1998);
133. ANTI-SLAVERY & INT'L WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS, ENSLAVED PEOPLES IN THE 1990s: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, DEBT BONDAGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS (1997);
134. PETER LEE-WRIGHT, CHILD SLAVES (1990);
135. ADAM ROBERTSON & SHISHAM MISHRA, FORCED TO PLOUGH: BONDED LABOUR IN NEPAL'S AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY (1997).
136. Gallagher, supranote 5, at 976. For the most complete brief review, see Dottridge & Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 259-73, 276-82.
137. Quirk, The Anti-Slavery Project, supranote 16, at 594.
138. BALES, supranote 17, at 232. The Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery boils down the causes to one: poverty.
139. Keck and Sikkink also emphasize the importance of short causal chains in enhancing the effectiveness of NGOs and NGO networks. Keck&Sikk ink, supranote 10.
140. BALES, supranote 17, at 232, 249.
141. Id. at 118-20.
142. Id. at 37.
143. Id. at 126-31.
144. Id. at 174.
145. Id. at 202.
146. Id. at 25, 232, 236. By contrast, Quirk and I agree that ingrained social practices such as social hierarchies may be more important than Bales indicates in understanding the tenacity of contemporary forms of slavery. Quirk email, supranote 21.
147. Summarized from BALES, supranote 17, at 15.
148. ANTI-SLAVERY & INT'L WORK GROUP FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS, supranote 110.
149. Quirk, The Anti-Slavery Project, supranote 18, at 566.
150. Id. at 578. He argues that for the vast majority of history, slavery was considered "natural, venerable, and often unremarkable, part of prevailing social order," and was shared by "civilized" and "primitive" peoples. It was sanctioned institutionally by both religious and secular authorities, while codifying master-slave and slave-society relations. Id. at 580-81.
151. A striking example of candor-or perhaps of paternalistic attitudes-appears in a letter dated 22 July 1959, from Commander Thomas Fox-Pitt, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, to E.J.F. Scott of the British Foreign Office: This society forsees [sic] a period after the new African States gain independence and before their administrations achieve undisputed authority, when slavery may increase. To suppress slavery the new States will need authority which must be greater than that of the colonial powers they supersede⋯ Our hope that the new administrations will really want to stop slavery must rest largely on our belief in their wish to be accepted by other powers as civilised and modern. If this motive is to be effective there must be some form of exposure by an authority which they respect. The United Nations alone holds this position.
152. Anti-Slavery papers MSS.Bri.Emp.S.22, 1957-59; Rhodes House, Oxford.
153. It was accordingly quite remarkable when Mauritania announced in 1980 that it would take steps to abolish chattel slavery, which it admitted still existed. See Bales, supranote 17, at 80-120, for a broader discussion of the continuing issue in Mauritania and KOREY, supranote 11, at 125. More specific information on this country can also be found in Amnesty Int'L, Mauri tani a: A Future Free from Slavery, available athttp://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR38/003/2002/en/ dom-AFR380032002en.pdf;
154. SAMUEL COTTON, SILENT TERROR: A JOURNEY INTO CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN SLAVERY (1998).
155. In March 1952, the organization counted only 476 members. This figure grew as Anti-Slavery moved into the public arena. In March 1980, membership reached 899; 1805 by March 1994; and 1700 by March 2001. Figures from an email from Jeff Howarth to Claude E. Welch (14 Aug. 2001).
156. The Rapporteur was Dr. Mohammed Awad, a distinguished Egyptian academic with extensive human rights experience. He had served as Rector of Alexandria University, a member of the Sub-Commission, and "was considered by his colleagues to be their 'doyen' on slavery questions," being regarded as having a proprietary personal interest in the subject. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 361. The personal observations come from Peter Calvocoressi, who had extensive contact with Awad. Awad himself proposed the "highly controversial establishment of a slavery committee, with an 'appropriate' secretariat." Id. at 364. For the texts of Awad's reports, see the following UN documents: Question of Slavery and the Slave Trade in All their Practices and Manifestations, including the Slavery-like Practices of Apartheid and Colonialism: Progress Report Submitted by Mr. Mohamed Awad, Special Rapporteur, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/312 (1970); Question of Slavery and the Slave Trade in All their Practices and Manifestations, including the Slavery-like Practices of Apartheid and Colonialism: Progress Report Submitted by Mr. Mohamed Awad, Special Rapporteur, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/322 (1971).
157. For an extended period, roughly 1950 to 1988, the United States essentially ratified no international human rights treaties, owing to concerns about national sovereignty raised in Congress. There is not sufficient space to explore this fascinating issue. SeeNATALIE HEVENER KAUFMAN, HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES AND THE SENATE: A HISTORY OF OPPOSITION (1990) for details.
158. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 365-66. The extension of the definition of slavery "cost Britain the leadership of the international antislavery movement, which had been the source of so much national pride in the past." Id. at 367.
159. Much of Montgomery's document reproduces the speech of a Pakistani diplomat, "a likeable young man of the threshold of his diplomatic career," who was willing to sponsor a resolution calling for such a committee. Montgomery hastily wrote his draft and passed it along; the young diplomat "read it in full, word for word and with considerable conviction" at the session. "Is slavery important? If so, how important? Geneva, 1966," handwritten memoir of Patrick Montgomery, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society; Anti-Slavery archives. The text of the speech can also be consulted in ITS TASK TODAY, supranote 74, at 8-10.
160. "Is slavery important?" Montgomery's document appears to have been prepared in 1992. The much-criticized Commission was replaced in 2006 by the Council on Human Rights.
161. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 376.
162. ITS TASK TODAY, supranote 74, at 4.
163. Id. at 3.
164. Id. at 4.
165. Id. at 5.
166. The treaty bodies for ICERD and the ICCPR were established in the texts of these agreements; the ICESCR provided merely that states parties should submit reports to ECOSOC (arts. 16-22). The Committee on Economic and Social Rights was not created until 1992.
167. ITS TASK TODAY, supranote 74, at 23.
168. Letter (marked confidential) from Colonel Patrick Montgomery to Baroness Diana Louie Elles (15 Aug. 1973); uncatalogued file of Anti-Slavery material dealing with the United Nations, 1973 folder, transferred to Rhodes House, Oxford (Dec. 1992).
169. Anti-Slavery, Brainstorming Session (14 Mar. 1987), Anti-Slavery library. They were joined by five persons "in attendance," who included the two professional employees of the Society, Peter Davies and Julian Burger. A considerably edited version appears in the Minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Anti-Slavery held at the House of Commons, Westminster SW1 (13 May 1987), at 4 (on file in Anti-Slavery archives).
170. The name change from secretary of the major staff member was made at the 1982 annual general meeting.
171. Brainstorming Session, supranote 142, at 3.
172. Minutes, supranote 142. The "basic minimum staff" would include a director, projects officer, administrator, membership/librarian, publications and press officer, and secretary.
173. Anti-Slavery Strategic Plan, 1997-1999;
174. Anti-Slavery Programme Objectives for the Three-Year Period 1997 to 1999, adopted16 Oct. 1996 by the annual general meeting, Anti-Slavery files.
175. Howarth email, supranote 128. They were joined by about five volunteers or interns.
176. KOREY, supranote 11, at 117-37.
177. ANTI-SLAVERY, 2005 ANN. REV. 2 (2005), available athttp://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/PDF/ annualreview2005.pdf.
178. One solution, of course, is to look at the work of Anti-Slavery as part of a far broader phenomenon. The thorough, stimulating work of Quirk gains coherence through its being subsumed within the title "Anti-Slavery Project." SeeQuirk, The Anti-Slavery Project, supranote 16; Joel Forbes Quirk, Trafficked into Slavery, 6 J. HUM. RTS. 181 (2007).
179. KECK & SIKKINK, supranote 10, at 23-24.
180. Korey argues so in his book about (largely-US based) human rights NGOs: their success was determined primarily by how closely and directly they worked with the US government. KOREY, supranote 11, at 180.
181. Brainstorming Session, supranote 142, at 2.
182. Anti-Slavery Strategic Plan, supranote 148, at 9-10. Also proposed was a 1999 international meeting of representatives of anti-slavery organizations from around the world. However, sufficient funding could not be obtained, and the Draft Declaration was defeated in the UN General Assembly in December 2006.
183. For most of its history, Anti-Slavery was essentially its own secretary. The extraordinary contributions of John Harris have received special notice here. He was a professional, but given his very low salary, functioned practically as a volunteer.
184. This is its current title, having been established as the Working Group on Slavery in 1975. The Commission on Human Rights did not accept a name change proposed in 1983 to call it the "Working Group against Slavery, Apartheid, Gross Human Exploitations and Human Degradations." The current name was approved by the Sub-Commission in 1987 and the Commission in 1988.
185. Montgomery Letter, supranote 141.
186. Report of the Working Group on Slavery on Its First Session, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.2/3 (1975). Official reports of the Working Group's activities are published as UN documents, usually under the generic title, "Question of Slavery and the Slave Trade in All their Practices and Manifestations, including the Slavery-like Practices of Apartheid and Colonialism, Report of the Working Group on Slavery on its [xth] session."
187. The period of activity was originally set at three days, but extended to five in 1976.
188. Oral intervntion by Patrick Montgomery, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, Commission on Human Rights, 10 February 1978; in unsorted archives 1972-1981, Anti-Slavery papers, Rhodes House, Oxford.
189. Various reports by the Secretary in the late 1970s include proud claims that, by staying with friends and other economies, he could keep the cost to less than £10 per day. Since Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in the world, this was no mean accomplishment.
190. ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, MAKING THE DIFFERENCE, ANNUAL REPORT 1994/95, at 9 (1995).
191. For example, former Anti-Slavery Secretary Patrick Montgomery clashed with his successor, Lesley Roberts in late 1991 regarding tactics to be followed in Geneva. Was it most effective to speak when possible at the Sub-Commission? Or was it better to spend time lobbying less formally? How much time should be spent in Geneva? What had been anodyne minutes of "The Committee" on 26 September were sharply revised two months later; Montgomery wanted to reiterate his views. In the revised minutes, the following paragraphs were inserted: Turning to page 4 of the Director's report, Patrick Montgomery said that he was astonished to read the sentence "We can either attend the whole meeting and intervene when we can under several agenda items or, as we do now, not bother." This seemed to imply that to attend and speak to meetings of the Sub-Commission was thought not to be worth while. He asked if any other intervention on behalf of the Anti-Slavery Society, now ANTI-SLAVERY had been made in either the Commission on Human Rights or in the Sub-Commission, either in 1990 or in 1991. The Director replied that none had been made, either in 1990 or in 1991. Patrick Montgomery said that, while many excellent reports had been made and submitted to both Working Groups in 1990 and also in 1991 and, while he accepted the Chairman's assurance that he and the Director had done much valuable work in lobbying the Experts and others, lobbying and speaking in the Working Groups was no substitute for oral interventions in debates. ANTI-SLAVERY, principally through its oral interventions, had built up a high reputation but this could lapse. People in Geneva were now asking "What has happened to the Anti-Slavery Society? Is it no longer concerned?" Our excellent written reports to Working Groups must be followed up if they are not to gather dust on some shelf.
192. The Chairman pointed out that it was difficult to spare the time to attend a whole session and that the expense was prohibitive: Patrick Montgomery said that if it were the wish of the Committee he would represent the Society in Geneva at his own expense.
193. Minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Anti-Slavery held at the House of Commons, Westminster SW1 (21 Nov. 1991), at 1 (on file in Anti-Slavery archives).
194. A rather different set of concerns emerged a decade later. I had the opportunity to interview Mike Dottridge in Geneva (Aug. 2000) and London (Oct. 2000). He expressed concern about the diffuseness and lack of follow-through by the Working Group, an assessment with which I certainly concur.
195. Most of these examples are taken from Survey of Recommendations Made by the Working Group on Slavery and Slavery-Like Practices Since Its Inception: Report of the Secretary- General, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1988/29, at 1-10 (1988) [hereinafter Working Group Survey].
196. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 393.
197. Study on Ways and Means for Establishing an Effective Mechanism for the Implementation of the Slavery Conventions, Prepared by the Secretary-General Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1989/35, at 7, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1989/37 (1989).
198. Id. There are numerous weaknesses in this conclusion, however. First, there is no legal or administrative power behind the Working Group. Second, the Working Group is small in number, shifting in composition, and limited in time. Third, and perhaps most fundamental, relatively few influential governments have lined up in strong support of the Working Group's goals. The United Nations is a creation of states; and their concerns affect how the United Nations runs much more than do NGO issues.
199. United Nations, Treaty Collection: Status of Treaties, available athttp://treaties.un.org/Pages/ParticipationStatus.aspx.
200. Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms Slavery on its Seventeenth Session, at 3, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1991/34 (1991). All in all, it appears as though thirty-one countries submitted information, essentially claiming that existing national laws took care of the issue. By my count, only one was a permanent member of the Security Council (France); two were African (Chad and Mali); and three Middle Eastern (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Yemen). Some states closely studied by Anti-Slavery did respond, including Brazil and Pakistan.
201. Resolution 1985/25, Slavery and slavery-like practices, in Report on the Forty-First Session (4 February-15 March 1985), at 59, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., U.N. Doc. E/1985/22-E/CN.4/1985/66.
202. One of the chief features of the August 2000 Sub-Commission meetings was its members' reactions to a March decision by the Commission on Human Rights that the Sub-Commission should henceforward adopt no resolution naming a specific state or states. Activist experts were sharply critical, proposing a variety of stratagems by which to smuggle critiques of individual governments into Sub-Commission records and the Commission's purview. Some Sub-Commission members aligned with governments applauded the Commission's action, as a way of reducing political activism. NGOs were the real targets (and victims) of the change: since governments control the Commission, country-specific resolutions are exceptionally difficult to have adopted by it (a lesson the United States seems to forget each year in its efforts to have the Commission condemn human rights practices in Cuba). Without the chance to lobby for a Sub-Commission resolution pinpointing a single state, some national and international NGOs found sessions far less attractive, and the number of NGOs attending in 2000 dropped from 1999.
203. A change in 1999 reduced the impact NGOs have, in a scarcely subtle way. Earlier reports from the Working Group specifically named NGOs and extensively summarized their comments, providing readers with extensive details and publicizing the NGO. This concerned governments, which often felt embarrassed or inappropriately attacked. By directive, references in the Working Group's report were shortened and made generic. For example, what had been numerous references to Sudan that year were summarized simply as, "In the course of a general discussion, a number of organizations mentioned the slavery situation in the Sudan." Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n on Hum. Rts., 24th Sess., Agenda Item 6, ¶ 55, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/17 (1999).
204. Early in the Working Group's history, the Commission rejected a Sub-Commission recommendation that it consider establishing a human rights assistance fund and allow witnesses to appear before the Working Group. Survey of recommendations made by the Working Group Survey, supranote 166, at 1, 3.
205. ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up, 137 INT'L LABOUR REV. 253 (1998) cited inDottridge&Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 252. Since 1998, the ILO has regarded abolition of forced or compulsory labor as a peremptory norm in general international law from which no derogations can be made. Id. at 253, n.46.
206. One of the most fascinating results came with the replacement of the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention and Recommendation, 1957 (No. 107) with the Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, 1989 (No. 169). Should Convention No. 169 be adopted by and implemented in countries in which Anti-Slavery has taken interest, it will provide yet another avenue whereby NGO expertise can be fed into international enforcement channels.
207. In chronological order of adoption, the following agreements provided for elected groups of individual experts, who would receive and discuss periodic reports from the states parties: ICERD (1965), ICCPR (1966), CEDAW (1979), CAT (1984), CRC (1989), and ICESCR (1992; this required a protocol to the original treaty). Similar mechanisms exist under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1949), the [Inter] American Convention on Human Rights (1969), and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1981).
208. Generally speaking, for conventions dealing with fundamental human rights, reports must be submitted every two years, and every five years for others.
209. Dottridge & Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 287, cautiously observe that the non-binding views of the Committee of Experts "do carry a certain amount of authority and in most instances are accepted."
210. Article 24 of the ILO Constitution permits investigations into non-compliance. Complaints can be initiated by employers' or workers' organizations (notby governments, which can avail themselves of Article 26, or by NGOs). ILO Const. art. 24. If the ILO Governing Body determines that the representation is accepted, it appoints a tripartite committee; its report, plus the applicable government's response, goes to the Governing Body for adoption.
211. According to Leary, the success of the ILO can be attributed to extensive assistance provided to Committees by a large number of high trained secretariat officials ⋯ the technical examination of reports by experts selected in a manner which minimizes political influence, a subsequent examination by a body more sensitive to political issues and also more capable of bringing political pressure to bear in a public manner, and by making the examination an integral part of the annual political meeting of the Organization.
212. Leary, supranote 7, at 596.
213. MIERS, SLAVERY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, supranote 11, at 134-51.
214. For information on the 2000 Supplementary Protocol, see Gallagher, supranote 5, at 985.
215. Miers quotes from correspondence exchanged by Harris and H.A. Grimshaw, a senior officer at the ILO. In her judgment, the two were fellow conspirators in working toward the 1930 convention. Email from Suzanne Miers to Claude E. Welch (22 Nov. 2000). Other input to the ILO came from the Permanent Mandates Commission and from inquiries carried out in British East Africa.
216. Work or service "which forms part of the normal civic obligations of the citizens of a fully self-governing country" is exempted. Only convicted criminals (not those awaiting trial, or those imprisoned for political offenses or as a result of labor disputes) may be obligated to work.
217. Dottridge & Weissbrodt, supranote 7, at 253. The authors comment that "ILO Convention No. 29 is the most widely ratified ILO convention, with 139 States parties." Id. at n.43.
218. The value of ILO contacts is consistently stressed in the internal Anti-Slavery reports about the Working Group that I had access to.
219. I was particularly struck by a ten-page letter from H.A. Grimshaw, a staff professional at the newly-formed ILO, dated 4 Feb. 1924: [I]n short, the International Labour Organisation is completely competent (juridically speaking) to treatment of labour conditions in which slavery or conditions approaching slavery are likely to exist; (4) and therefore it would appear entirely convenient that the whole question of slavery should be entrusted to the International Labour Organisation if that body were willing to undertake it⋯ . I fear that the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, which would of course have a deciding voice in [creating an advisory committee] might hesitate to create such a committee for two reasons: firstly, expense, and secondly a very natural distaste for anything which savours of delegation of its powers. But you will agree that in the case of a highly technical problem such as this the assistance of a body of experts is essential ⋯ they should sit as experts, and not as national representatives⋯ . (One enormous advantage that we should have over the League strikes me at this moment: we should have the backing of the workers organisationseverywhere.)⋯ .
220. In conclusion, I may say I am writing of course unofficially, but I may say also that I feel perfectly certain that, if the Council [of the League] took the line I have indicated and the Assembly approved, there is not the slightest doubt that the Organisation would undertake the duties.
221. Anti-Slavery Papers G446, League of Nations 1923 Nov.-1925 Mar., Rhodes House, Oxford.
222. Previous Special Rapporteurs were charged with specific projects, provided staff assistance by the United Nations, and given definite terms of reference. Mohamed Awad (1969-1971) produced an extensive report, which Benjamin Whitaker updated between 1981 and 1982. Notably, Whitaker was a member of Anti-Slavery who served on the Sub-Commission and the Working Group in the mid-1970s. Weissbrodt's appointment in 1997 came after extensive lobbying by Anti-Slavery.
223. See Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, H.R.C. Res. A/HRC/RES/6/14, U.N. GAOR, Hum. Rts. Council (2007), available athttp://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/HRC/resolutions/A-HRC-RES-6-14.pdf.
224. SeePress Release, The Advocates for Human Rights, U.N. Human Rights Council Appoints Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery (9 Nov. 2007), available athttp://www.stopvaw.org/U-N-Human-Rights-Council- Appoints-Special-Rapporteur-on-Contemporary-Forms-of-Slavery.html.
225. KOREY, supranote 11, at 125-30.
226. Quirk, The Anti-Slavery Project, supranote 16, at 595.
227. Id. at 596-97.