OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS

Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery

Sub-Commission resolution 1997/22

The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities,
Taking note of the report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery on its twenty-second session(E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/13) and in particular the recommendations contained in chapter VI,
Deeply concerned at the information it contains relating to child and bonded labour, sexual exploitation, inparticular of children, the traffic in persons, migrant and domestic workers and sexual slavery during wartime,
Noting that the status of ratification of the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave
Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery of 1956 and the Convention for the Suppression of theTraffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others of 1949 is still unsatisfactory,
Considering the necessity of promoting the implementation of international norms and standards on trafficking
in persons and exploitation of the prostitution of others, and of strengthening the mechanism of implementationof the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution ofOthers,
1. Expresses its appreciation to the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery for its valuable work andin particular for its continued broad approach and flexible methods of work;
2. Recommends once again that the General Assembly consider proclaiming 2 December as the day for theabolition of slavery in all its forms;
I. PREVENTION OF TRAFFIC IN PERSONS AND EXPLOITATION OF THE PROSTITUTION OFOTHERS
3. Welcomes the outcome of the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held atStockholm from 27 to 31 August 1996;
4. Recalls the adoption by the Commission on Human Rights of the Programme of Action for the Prevention ofthe Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1995/28/Add.1);
5. Requests the Secretary-General to invite all States to report periodically to the Sub-Commission on measures
adopted to implement the Programme of Action and on the efficacy of such measures;
6. Recommends that Governments prohibit the advertising or publicizing of sex tourism and that they do notfacilitate other commercial activities involving sexual exploitation;
7. Encourages Governments, in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS, to establish specific projects for the protection of the victims of traffic in persons
and of prostitution from the risk of infection with HIV and the spread of AIDS;
8. Recommends that States take urgent measures, including measures of criminal law and of cooperation withother States, designed to protect minors from exposure to or involvement in pornography and requests theSecretary-General to invite States to provide information on measures taken or already applicable;

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9. Invites the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union, to continue toexamine the adverse effect on children of new technologies, such as the Internet, that are used to promote,inter alia, child pornography and sex tourism;
10. Recommends that national institutions for the prevention of prostitution be established in all States in order
to assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of prostitution;
11. Welcomes the positive measures taken by the World Tourism Organization and professionals in the field oftourism to combat sex tourism, and encourages the reinforcement of such activities;
II. SALE OF CHILDREN, CHILD PROSTITUTION AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
A. Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
12. Takes note of the information on these problems submitted by the Special Rapporteur in her report to theCommission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/1997/95 and Add.1-2);
13. Also takes note of the information on these problems submitted by the participants at the twenty-second
session of the Working Group and requests the High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights to transmit theinformation to the Special Rapporteur, along with the recommendations relating to her mandate;
14. Requests the Special Rapporteur, within the framework of her mandate, to continue to pay attention to issues
relating to the traffic in children, such as organ transplantation, disappearances, the purchase and sale of children,
adoption for commercial purposes or exploitation, child prostitution and child pornography;
15. Strongly encourages the Special Rapporteur to participate in the twenty-third session of the Working Group,in view of the importance of her contribution to its deliberations;
B. Programme of Action for the Prevention of the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
16. Encourages the Working Group on a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on
the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography to continue its work in elaborating a draft optional
protocol, and calls upon the Working Group to outline a framework for international cooperation to bring to anend all practices relating to the sexual exploitation of children, including child sex tourism;
17. Requests the Secretary-General to invite all States to continue to inform the Working Group of measures
adopted to implement the Programme of Action for the Prevention of the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution andChild Pornography;
18. Encourages all Governments to consider, in the context of the Programme of Action, the creation ofprogrammes aimed at the social rehabilitation of all victims of trafficking, prostitution and pornography, inparticular children, and requests international cooperation for establishing and implementing such programmes;
C. Commercial sexual exploitation of children
19. Welcomes the dissemination of the Declaration and Agenda for Action of the World Congress against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children;
20. Calls upon all States to muster the political will to give priority to this issue and to initiate through national
debate and an intersectoral dialogue a process which moves from deploring the issue to the urgent adoption of anational agenda for action that includes the gathering of gender-disaggregated data, indicators of progress,
setting goals, a time-frame for its implementation and national monitoring mechanisms;
21. Calls for increased cooperation between and concrete action-oriented measures by States and internationalorganizations;D. Traffic in human organs and tissues

page 222. Notes the information submitted by the Secretary-General to the Commission on Human Rights(E/CN.4/1997/78) in accordance with Commission resolution 1996/61 of 23 April 1996, in which theCommission requested the Secretary-General to examine, in cooperation with relevant United Nations agencies,
in particular the World Health Organization and all relevant non-governmental organizations, the reliability ofallegations regarding the removal of organs and tissues of children and adults for commercial purposes in orderto enable the Commission to decide upon possible follow-up to this matter;
23. Welcomes the adoption by the Commission on Human Rights of resolution 1997/20 of 11 April 1997, inwhich the Commission requested the Secretary-General to continue the examination of the reliability ofallegations regarding the removal of organs and tissues of children and adults for commercial purposes and toinclude an analysis of this question in an updated report to be submitted to the Commission at its fifty-fifthsession, in order to enable the Commission to decide whether continued attention to this question is required;
24. Encourages the World Health Organization to continue to pay special attention to this issue, welcomes once
again the recommendation of the World Health Organization Advisory Committee on Health Research to set upa task force on organ transplantation, and notes the report of its first meeting held in Annecy, France, on 10 and
11 October 1996;
III. ELIMINATION OF THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILD LABOUR
25. Urges all States, while attempting ultimately to eliminate the phenomenon of child labour, to adopt measuresand regulations to protect child labourers, to ensure that their labour is not exploited and to prohibit their labourin hazardous occupations;26. Urges States that have not yet done so to ratify the relevant International Labour Organization conventions,in particular the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Convention on the Minimum Age forAdmission to Employment, 1973 (No. 138);
27. Calls for international cooperation in order to assist the States concerned in their struggle against bondedlabour;
28. Requests the Secretary-General to invite all States to inform the Working Group of measures adopted to
implement the Programme of Action for the Elimination of the Exploitation of Child Labour and to report to theSub-Commission and the Commission at their next sessions;IV. ERADICATION OF BONDED LABOUR
29. Takes note with satisfaction of the promulgation by certain States of laws against bonded labour, and appeals
to their Governments to adopt all necessary measures to ensure the full implementation of such laws;
30. Requests the specialized agencies, in particular the international financial institutions and the development
agencies of the United Nations, to ensure that the projects they support do not, in any way, use bonded labour;
31. Recommends that Governments cooperate with trade unions and employers' organizations at the national
level to address the problem of bonded labour and that trade unions and employers' organizations at the local,
national and international levels utilize the existing structures of the International Labour Organization dealing
with violations of the relevant conventions concerning forced labour, and encourages concerned nongovernmental organizations to strengthen their activities for disseminating information and advising trade unions
in this regard;
V. FORCED LABOUR
32. Reaffirms once again that forced labour is a contemporary form of slavery;
33. Decides to continue to give consideration to this issue at its next session;
VI. MIGRANT WORKERS

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34. Decides to give priority to the consideration of the question of domestic and migrant workers at its next
sessions;
35. Also decides to continue to give particular attention to the situation of girl children domestic workers, andurges Governments to ensure that protective regulations govern their employment situation and provide for safe
conditions of work;
36. Notes the difficult situation in which girl children are living and the need for them to be provided withprotection with a view to their fullest human development and participation in the life of their community beingensured;
37. Urges States to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families;
38. Also urges States to take the necessary measures to prohibit and sanction the confiscation of passports
belonging to migrant workers, in particular, migrant domestic workers;
39. Strongly condemns practices of unequal treatment of migrant workers and the denial of their human dignity;
40. Welcomes Commission on Human Rights resolution 1997/15 of 3 April 1997 in which the Commission
decided to establish a working group consisting of five intergovernmental experts on human rights and migrants;
41. Also welcomes the conclusions and recommendations of the United Nations seminar on immigration, racism
and racial discrimination held in Geneva from 5 to 9 May 1997, and requests the Secretary-General todisseminate them widely;
42. Recommends that non-governmental organizations give attention to the grave problems affecting migrantworkers and provide the Working Group with information in this regard;
VII. ILLEGAL AND PSEUDO-LEGAL ADOPTIONS AIMING AT THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN
43. Takes note of the information received concerning cases of children adopted for commercial purposes andany other form of traffic;
44. Urges States to take adequate steps to regulate and monitor intercountry adoptions better, in particular by
ratifying the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoptionof 1993;
45. Decides to continue to give consideration to this issue at its next session;
VIII. ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
A. Violence against women
46. Decides to give more priority to exploring preventive measures for the elimination of violence against
women, in particular in situations of armed conflict;
47. Welcomes the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and notes her report(E/CN.4/1997/47 and Add.1-4);
48. Invites Governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations to disseminate
widely the report of the Special Rapporteur and to implement the recommendations contained therein;
49. Decides to pay special attention to the next report of the Special Rapporteur, which will focus on violenceagainst women during armed conflict;page 4

50. Decides to transmit the information received concerning the sexual exploitation of women and other forms offorced labour during wartime to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the Special Rapporteuron the situation of systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during periods of armed conflict;
51. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit the final report to be prepared by the Special Rapporteur on thesituation of systematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during periods of armed conflict to theWorking Group at its next session;
52. Invites the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the Special Rapporteur on the situation ofsystematic rape, sexual slavery and slavery-like practices during periods of armed conflict to participate in thetwenty-third session of the Working Group;
B. Sexual slavery during wartime, in particular during the Second World War
53. Takes note of the information provided by the Government of Japan, as well as by other parties concerned,
with regard to actions in relation to the issue of women sex slaves during the Second World War, recognizing thepositive steps made so far towards the solution to this issue;
54. Encourages further efforts towards a constructive dialogue;
55. Invites the Government of Japan to continue to cooperate with the United Nations and the specialized
agencies in this matter;
56. Decides to continue to consider this issue at its next session;
IX. MISCELLANEOUS
57. Decides to biennialize the consideration of the issues of incest and early marriage, including theconsideration of ways to combat incest and sexual abuse of children inside the family and the urgent need foradequate help to be offered to victims of such practices;
58. Urges Governments to make confidential facilities available for children to make disclosure of the situationand to obtain advice and assistance;
59. Urges Member States to take adequate steps to punish severely the perpetrators of this most heinous offence;
60. Requests the Secretary-General to seek the views and suggestions of Member States and ofintergovernmental and non-governmental organizations on proposals for the future action of the Working Group
with a view to its considering their replies at its forthcoming sessions;61. Appeals to all Governments to send representatives to the meetings of the Working Group;
62. Encourages youth organizations and young persons from various non-governmental organizations toparticipate in the meetings of the Working Group;
63. Recommends that the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of theChild, when examining the periodic reports of States parties, give particular attention to the implementation of,respectively, articles 8 and 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, articles 10, 12 and 13of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 6 of the Convention on theElimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and articles 32, 34 and 36 of the Convention on theRights of the Child, and to include in their guidelines an item concerning contemporary forms of slavery;
64. Recommends that the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of theInternational Labour Organization and the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations of theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization give particular attention in their work to theimplementation of provisions and standards designed to ensure protection of children and other persons exposed

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to contemporary forms of slavery, such as the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, theexploitation of child labour, bonded labour and the traffic in persons;
65. Requests the Secretary-General to transmit to the committees mentioned above, the special rapporteurs
concerned and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances the recommendations ofrelevance to them and the report of the Working Group;
66. Welcomes again the adoption by the Commission on Human Rights of resolution 1996/61 of 23 April 1996,
in which the Commission requested the Secretary-General to give effect to his decision to reassign to theWorking Group a Professional staff member of the Centre for Human Rights, as was the case in the past, to workon a permanent basis to ensure continuity and close coordination within and outside the Centre for HumanRights on issues relating to contemporary forms of slavery;
67. Again requests the Secretary-General to designate the High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights as thefocal point for the coordination of activities and the dissemination of information within the United Nations
system for the suppression of contemporary forms of slavery;
68. Notes that the Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 1993/48 of 28 July 1993, approved theendorsement by the Commission on Human Rights of the recommendation made by the Sub-Commission in itsresolution 1992/2 of 14 August 1992 that the arrangements regarding the organization of the sessions of theWorking Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, as contained in Commission decision 1992/115 of3 March 1992, be repeated in subsequent years;
69. Decides, in arranging its agenda, to make provision for adequate discussion of the report of the Working
Group near the commencement of each session, thereby strengthening its involvement in the activities of theWorking Group.
35th meeting
27 August 1997
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. VIII.]

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