97
- 22 -
CHAPTER VIII.
SUMMARY AND GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.
68. To sum up, with the exception of Liberia, with which the Committee did not feel called upon to deal, it would appear from the material supplied to the Committee of Experts and the discussions which took place in the Committee:
(a) That slave-raiding in the old form of vast organised operations such as still existed only thirty years ago in Africa has completely disappeared under the combined efforts of the European Colonial Powers, which have effectively occupied to their extreme boundaries the African territories placed under their authority, although at intervals, especially on the frontiers of certain possessions or of States such as Abyssinia, in districts where the authority of the Central Government does not yet make itself sufficiently felt, there still occur individual or collective acts aimed at the capture of free men in order to keep them as slaves or dispose of them subsequently. The number of such acts is declining from year to year, and they are tending to disappear, being moreover severely punished by Abyssinian law (death penalty). A closer and more active liaison between the Powers concerned will no doubt finally put an end to such practices.
(b) That the chief object of these captures is to supply the slave markets which still exist in certain Arab States on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and that the first objective of the League of Nations must be to secure the abolition of the slave trade by means of the moral pressure which can be exerted on these States by the Powers that have concluded either treaties of protection and control or treaties of friendship and commerce with them. Meanwhile, seeing that slaves are embarked along the whole of the west coast of the Red Sea, supervision by the Powers, including Egypt, which exercise authority over these areas must be maintained and, if possible, intensified on a more uniform basis than at present.
(c) That there are still a few States, chiefly the Moslem States of Arabia, which have not yet abolished slavery either in law or in fact, and that the League of Nations should exert influence upon them in order to induce them to do so either immediately or gradually; in any case, such States should not be received into the League of Nations, should they express a desire for admittance, until they have accepted obligations identical with those entered into by Abyssinia in 1923, and European Powers, in concluding treaties with these States, should endeavour to secure the insertion of a clause aiming at the same object.
(d) That there is one Christian State, Abyssinia, which has not yet completely abolished slavery in law or in fact; but that, in conformity with its obligations, it has enacted successive measures aiming, on the one hand, at preventing the enslavement of persons who are at present free and, on the other hand, by increasing liberations, at gradually diminishing the number of those who are still slaves without creating the political, economic or social disturbances in the country which are to be apprehended; and that the League of Nations should keep in touch with the progress made and should see that it does not slow down but is, on the contrary, accelerated as much as possible.
(e) That, even in countries which have abolished slavery in the ordinary sense of the term, there still exist in Africa certain kinds of social status in which men are not in enjoyment of full civil freedom, but which are in no sense inhuman, and which in certain ways (assistance to the sick and infirm) even present advantages. A social status of this kind cannot equitably be assimilated to slavery in the usual sense of the term without running the risk of giving to the civilised world an incorrect and unfair impression of what may still remain of this ancient evil. These kinds of social status have been abolished in law in the territories under the authority of the colonial Powers and are gradually disappearing in fact under the influence of various factors. According to the French, Italian and Portuguese experts, such kinds of social status do not come under the definition of slavery as laid down in the 1926 Convention. According to the Belgian, British, Spanish and Netherlands experts, these kinds of social status do come within that definition, if they involve the exercise by the master of any the attributes of the right of property.
of
Lastly, there still seem to exist practices incompatible with human liberty in certain districts of Africa and Asia, and even America. They take numerous forms not always easy to define and vary from country to country; they must be prohibited by law, pending their abolition by custom. Among these practices are the pawning of debtors, peonage, simulated adoption of children, etc.
69. Is the description of the situation given in the present report accurate? Is it complete ? Far from being able to reply in the affirmative, the Committee of Experts feels convinced that both these questions call for a negative answer. In point of fact, as the Committee has repeatedly stated in the course of the foregoing chapters, and in connection with the special points dealt with in those chapters, the material which has been supplied to it is inadequate. That applies even to countries which have ratified the 1926 Slavery Convention. No doubt Article 7 of that Convention obliges them to communicate to the other contracting parties and to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations any laws and regulations which they may enact with a view to the application of the provisions of the Convention, but even if all the parties to that Convention which exercise authority over oversea territories had supplied the documents mentioned, the latter would still be insufficient to permit of an exact picture of the facts.
In his communications of November 1st, 1929, November 7th, 1930, and October 21st, 1931, the Secretary-General of the League, in pursuance of the resolutions adopted by the Assembly at its tenth, eleventh and twelfth sessions, invited the Governments to transmit to the Secretariat,
23
—
not only the documents provided for in Article 7 of the 1926 Convention, but also such information as they were in a position to furnish as to the present situation of slavery, and even information from private sources which they thought fit to communicate, either relating to their own territories or to the general position of slavery.
However, while certain Governments-such as those of Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan-supplied information, and while certain of these reports furnished valuable data, many Governments have not acceded to the desire expressed by the Assembly of the League. The Committee would have found of very great value other sources of information, such as the reports of diplomatic and consular agents on the situation regarding slavery in countries to which they are appointed if slavery still exists in these countries, or, again, communications sent to associations concerned with the question.
Further, it would have been necessary for the Committee to dispose of the means and the time required for classifying these different documents and checking the statements contained in such information from various sources as it would have decided to investigate.
The Committee is not therefore in a position to give a definite or precise reply to the first question put to it under the terms of reference-namely, the extent to which the 1926 Convention has been successful in putting an end to slavery and what obstacles exist to further progress in that direction.
The suggestions submitted by the Committee at the end of each chapter of the present report setting forth the facts can thus also be only of relative value.
70. The second question which the Council asked the Committee was by what methods assistance could be rendered to States desirous of receiving it with the object of putting an end to slavery within their territory.
On this point, the Committee finds some difficulty in giving an answer, since, except in the case of Liberia, with which the Committee did not feel called upon to deal, owing to the existence of a special committee of the Council to study all the questions which concern that country, no State had expressed a desire for assistance. It is possible to imagine political assistance, pecuniary assistance, technical assistance, moral assistance and a type of assistance which, while possible in the case of one State, would not be suitable or even conceivable for others. At the same time, among the suggestions to be found at the conclusion of the foregoing chapters of the present report, the Committee has contemplated the possibility of the collaboration of certain States or of the League of Nations in the measures adopted by another State to combat slavery, and it has also suggested the utility of a measure which, while directing the attention of public opinion in all civilised nations to the existence of slavery in this or that country, should give evidence of their anxiety that slavery should disappear.
71.
*
**
The Council has also asked the Committee to report whether, with the object of hastening the disappearance of slavery, any modifications of the existing machinery of the League would be desirable and, if so, what they should be.
To begin with, the Committee is of opinion that the Powers parties to the Convention are not sufficiently in a position to determine how far the other contracting parties comply with the obligation entered into by them to combat slavery.
As stated in paragraph 69 of the present report, it would be well if, in addition to the documents mentioned in Article 7 of the Convention, the contracting parties in whose territory slavery or analogous forms of servitude still exist would enter into an undertaking to forward to the League Secretariat a report describing the situation in regard to slavery in their territories, the administrative measures, if any, taken to abolish it, the results obtained and any obstacles to further progress.
It would at all events be desirable that they should consent to forward such a report to the League Council should the latter ask them to do so.
72. The Committee considers also that it is essential to attach to the services of the Secretariat a Bureau, whose duty it would be:
(a) To receive, in addition to the documents mentioned in Article 7 of the 1926 Convention. the reports from Governments referred to above and possibly any information supplied by diplomatic and consular agents concerning slavery which Governments might be disposed to forward to the League;
(b) To seek out and collect any other information relating to slavery published in the newspapers, periodicals or any other publications;
73.
(c) To classify such documents according to a methodical system.
It may be asked whether these measures would be adequate for the purpose in view. In any case, if the League of Nations felt that it required enlightenment from experts on the subject, the Committee thinks that it would not be sufficient to consult from time to time a Committee working under the same conditions as the 1924 Temporary Commission or the present Committee. Apart from the inadequacy of the material, the present Committee was obliged to take cognisance suddenly and in haste of the material collected; most of the members had not been associated with the Temporary Commission's work in 1924, so that they were unable to make
99
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.