IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 55 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding modernday slavery. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 11, 2007 

Ms. LEE (for herself and Mr. LEWIS of Georgia) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 

regarding modern-day slavery. 

Whereas modern-day slavery means the status or condition of 

a person over whom any power attaching to the right of 

ownership or control is exercised by means of exploitation 

through involuntary servitude; 

Whereas forms of modern-day slavery include chattel slavery, 

human trafficking, indentured or bonded labor, forced 

labor, forced marriage, and the worst forms of child labor 

or other similar means; 

Whereas the United Kingdom outlawed slavery in 1807, recognizing that ‘‘the African Slave Trade, and all manner 

of dealing and trading in the Purchase, Sale, Barter, or 

Transfer of Slaves, or of Persons intended to be sold, 

transferred, used, or dealt with as Slaves, practiced or 


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carried on, in, at, to or from any Part of the Coast or 

Countries of Africa, shall be, and the same is hereby utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful’’; 

Whereas the United States outlawed slavery and involuntary 

servitude in 1865, recognizing that those evil institutions 

must be abolished; 

Whereas Article 1 of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on 

the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions 

and Practices Similar to Slavery states that ‘‘[e]ach of 

the States Parties to this Convention shall take all practicable and necessary legislative and other measures to 

bring about progressively and as soon as possible the 

complete abolition or abandonment of the following institutions and practices, where they still exist and whether 

or not they are covered by the definition of slavery contained in Article 1 of the Slavery Convention signed at 

Geneva on 25 September 1926’’; 

Whereas Article 1 of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on 

the Abolition of Slavery further states that such institutions and practices of slavery include— 

(1) debt bondage; 

(2) serfdom; 

(3) ‘‘[a]ny institution or practice whereby: (i) [a] 

woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given 

in marriage on payment of a consideration in money or 

in kind to her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or (ii) [t]he husband of a woman, his family, or his clan, has the right to transfer her to another 

person for value received or otherwise; or (iii) [a] woman 

on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited by 

another person;’’; and 


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(4) ‘‘[a]ny institution or practice whereby a child or 

young person under the age of 18 years, is delivered by 

either or both of his natural parents or by his guardian 

to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view 

to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his 

labour.’’; 

Whereas Article 6 of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on 

the Abolition of Slavery states that ‘‘[t]he act of enslaving another person or of inducing another person to give 

himself or a person dependent upon him into slavery, or 

of attempting these acts, or being accessory thereto, or 

being a party to a conspiracy to accomplish any such 

acts, shall be a criminal offence under the laws of the 

States Parties to this Convention and persons convicted 

thereof shall be liable to punishment’’; 

Whereas in the 21st century as many as 27 million people 

are suffering as slaves throughout the world and in the 

United States; 

Whereas modern-day slavery strips human beings of dignity, 

respect, and hope for their future; 

Whereas no country or people are immune from the effects 

of modern-day slavery; 

Whereas the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 

U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) states that the Declaration of Independence recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of all 

people and states that all men are created equal and are 

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, 

including the right to be free from slavery and involuntary servitude; 

Whereas trafficking in persons involves the following: ‘‘The 

use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit a person for 


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commercial sex or for the purpose of subjecting a victim 

to involuntary servitude, debt bondage, or forced labor. 

The use of force or coercion can be direct and violent, or 

psychological.’’; 

Whereas an estimated 800,000 persons are trafficked across 

international borders each year; 

Whereas approximately 80 percent of victims are female and 

an estimated 40 to 50 percent of victims are children; 

Whereas many of the victims are trafficked into the international sex trade, which includes sexual exploitation of 

persons involving activities including prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and other commercial sexual services; 

Whereas an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the United States each year; 

Whereas global profits from trafficked forced labor totals an 

estimated $31.6 billion annually; 

Whereas the Department of Health and Human Services 

states that human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry worldwide; 

Whereas Article 1 of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on 

the Abolition of Slavery defines indentured or bonded 

labor as ‘‘the status or condition arising from a pledge 

by a debtor of his [or her] personal services or of those 

of a person under his [or her] control as security for a 

debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed 

is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the 

length and nature of those services are not respectively 

limited and defined’’; 

Whereas bonded labor can hardly be distinguished from traditional slavery because it prevents the victim from leaving 

his or her job until the debt is repaid; 


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Whereas the borrower is usually in a situation where he or 

she is never able to repay the debt, and consequently the 

bonded laborer’s children inherit the debt in which people 

are enslaved from generation to generation; 

Whereas bonded labor affects at least 20 million people 

around the world; 

Whereas International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 

No. 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labor ‘‘prohibits the 

use of any form of forced or compulsory labor as a means 

of political coercion or education, punishment for the expression of political or ideological views, workforce mobilization for purposes of economic development, labor discipline, punishment for participation in strikes, or racial, 

social, national or religious discrimination’’; 

Whereas at least 12.3 million people are victims of forced 

labor which includes at least 9,490,000 in Asia and the 

Pacific, at least 1,320,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 360,000 in industrialized countries (i.e. 

England, France, and the United States), at least 

260,000 in the Middle East and North Africa, at least 

260,000 in transition countries, and at least 660,000 in 

sub-Saharan Africa; 

Whereas among such 12.3 million victims, at a minimum, 

there are at least 2.5 million people who are forced to 

work by the governments, military forces, or rebel military groups; 

Whereas at least 9.8 million people are exploited by private 

agents and enterprises; 

Whereas the ILO estimates that there are at least 1.4 million 

victims of commercial sexual exploitation and at least 7.7 

million victims of economic exploitation; 


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Whereas global profits from all forced labor total an estimated $44.3 billion annually; 

Whereas Article 1 of the 1964 Convention on Consent to 

Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration 

of Marriages states that no marriage shall be legally entered into without the full and free consent of both parties; 

Whereas there is a clear distinction between an arranged 

marriage and a forced marriage, where in an arranged 

marriage the consent of both parties is sought and given 

but in a forced marriage, consent is not given and duress 

is invariably a factor; 

Whereas ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of 

Child Labor defines the worst forms of child labor ‘‘as: 

all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such 

as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, 

serfdom and forced or compulsory labor; forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; 

use of a child for prostitution, production of pornography 

or pornographic performances; use, procuring or offering 

of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs; work which is likely to 

harm the health, safety or morals of children’’; 

Whereas Principle 9 of the Declaration of the Rights of the 

Child proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United 

Nations on November 20, 1959, states that ‘‘. . . the child 

shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall in no case be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment which 

would prejudice his health or education, or interfere with 

his physical, mental, or moral development . . .’’; 


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Whereas Article 2 of ILO Convention No. 138 Concerning 

Minimum Age For Admission to Employment states: 

‘‘The minimum age specified in pursuance of paragraph 

1 of this article shall not be less than the age of compulsory schooling and, in any case, shall not be less than 16 

years.’’; 

Whereas ILO Convention No. 182 has been ratified by more 

than 155 nations and requires immediate and effective 

action to eliminate the worst forms of child labor which 

involve children under the age of 18 and which include 

slavery, debt bondage, forced or compulsory labor, the 

sale or trafficking of children, including the forced or 

compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, child prostitution, the use of children in the production and trafficking of narcotics, and any other work 

that, by its nature or due to the circumstances in which 

it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or 

morals of children; 

Whereas in particular, the ILO estimates that there are at 

least 60 million children worldwide currently trapped in 

the worst forms of child labor; 

Whereas the ILO estimates at least 179 million children affected by child labor work in areas that are harmful to 

their health and welfare; 

Whereas according to the ILO, worldwide an estimated 250 

million children under the age of 15 are working, many 

of them in dangerous industries such as mining and fireworks; 

Whereas children under the age of 15 constitute approximately 11 percent of the workforce in some Asian counVerDate Aug 31 2005 01:32 Jan 13, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR55.IH HR55

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tries, 17 percent in parts of Africa, and a reported 12 

to 26 percent in many countries in Latin America; 

Whereas the number of children under the age of 15 who are 

working, and the scale of their suffering, increases every 

year, despite the existence of more than 20 ILO conventions on child labor and laws in many countries that purportedly prohibit the employment of under-age children; 

Whereas in many countries, children under the age of 15 lack 

either the legal standing or means to protect themselves 

from exploitation in the workplace; 

Whereas ILO Convention No. 182 focused world attention on 

the need to take immediate action to eradicate those 

forms of child labor that are hazardous and damaging to 

children’s physical, mental, or moral well-being; 

Whereas the prevalence of child labor in many developing 

countries is rooted in widespread poverty that is attributable to unemployment and underemployment, precarious incomes, low living standards, and insufficient education and training opportunities among adult workers; 

Whereas the employment of children under the age of 16 

commonly deprives such children of the opportunity for 

basic education and also denies gainful employment to 

millions of adults; 

Whereas modern-day slavery capitalizes on areas of conflict 

and post conflict, transitioning states, sudden political 

change, economic collapse, civil unrest, internal armed 

conflict, chronic unemployment, widespread poverty, personal disaster, lack of economic opportunity, and natural 

disasters; 

Whereas modern-day slavery preys upon the vulnerable, ethnic minorities, and people without citizenship; 


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Whereas modern-day slavery uses threats, intimidation, manipulation, coercion, fraud, shame, and violence to force 

victims into modern-day slavery; 

Whereas populations vulnerable to modern-day slavery are 

growing due to the rising numbers of orphans in developing countries, which are due to civil conflicts and the 

HIV/AIDS pandemic; 

Whereas the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases poses a global threat and creates a particular challenge for victims of modern-day slavery involved in the international sex trade; 

Whereas modern-day slavery brutalizes men, women, and 

children, and exposes them to rape, torture, HIV/AIDS 

and other sexually-transmitted diseases, violence, dangerous working conditions, poor nutrition, drug and alcohol addiction, and severe psychological trauma from separation, coercion, sexual abuse, and depression; 

Whereas organized criminal groups, gangs, document forgers, 

brothel owners, and corrupt police or immigration officials funnel modern-day slavery profits into both legitimate and criminal activities; 

Whereas modern-day slavery has a negative impact on the 

labor market in many countries and perpetuates a cycle 

of poverty; 

Whereas the loss of family-support networks due to modernday slavery contributes to the breakdown of societies; and 

Whereas 2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition 

of the transatlantic slave trade: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 


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1 (1) the abolition of modern-day slavery should 

2 be a high priority of United States foreign and do3 mestic policy and the United States should assume 

4 a leadership role in a global campaign to eliminate 

5 all forms of modern-day slavery by 2017; 

6 (2) the trade, aid, and investment policies of 

7 the United States should reflect and advance the 

8 commitment of the United States to freedom for all 

9 people; 

10 (3) the United States should expand protection 

11 and legal options for victims of modern-day slavery; 

12 (4) the United States should bring together 

13 governments, international organizations, nongovern14 mental organizations, and individuals to form a com15 prehensive coalition and forge a sustained global ac16 tion plan to fight modern-day slavery; and 

17 (5) the abolition of modern-day slavery should 

18 be prioritized at the 2007 Group of 8 (G–8) Summit 

19 in Germany. 

Æ 


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