TNAG-0967-FCO40-1186-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 38

D.

Debt bondage

51. The Working Group received a report entitled Bonded and Forced Labour in India from the Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights. Referring to earlier reports submitted by the Society to the Working Group at its fourth and fifth sessions, as well as to the reply transmitted by the Government of India (E/CN.4/Sub.2/LC.2/26), and the information supplied by the ILO (E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.2/34), the representative of the Anti-Slavery Society stated that information reaching his organization showed that debt bondage continued unchecked throughout much of India. In particular, it appeared that the new legislation adopted by the Government of India to eliminate bonded labour was not being effectively enforced.

52. The report now before the Working Group detailed the condition of the Adivasis (tribal peoples), which amounted to a situation scarcely different from chattel slavery. According to the report, a disturbing aspect of the practice was the continuing failure of Government administration at all levels, including the police, to protect the rights of tribal peoples. The report stated that on many occasions it had been reported that the police, in collusion with local money lenders, land owners and businessmen, had themselves committed atrocities such as rape of tribal women and the burning of their houses. In conclusion, the Anti- Slavery Society recommended that the Government of India be invited to appoint a commission to study the problems of bonded and forced labour with a view to their elimination.

E.

53.

The traffic in persons and the exploitation of the prostitution of others

The Working Group was informed that, during 1979, Djibouti, Ecuador and Senegal had ratified the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, bringing the total number of countries which had ratified the Convention to 49.

54. The Working Group was also informed that OXFAM, a non-governmental organization in consultative status which the previous year had submitted a statement on child prostitution in Brazil to the Working Group (issued in document E/CN.4/Sub.2/LC.2/27), had decided to withdraw the report because of its inability to supply additional information.

55.

The Working Group also heard a statement by the representative of the Branch for the Advancement of Women in the United Nations Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs.. He indicated that several areas of work of the Commission on the Status of Women and of the Branch for the Advancement of Women were of relevance to the mandate of the Working Group. A non-confidential list of communications submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women at its twenty-eighth session (E/CN.6/SR.25) contained information on the traffic in women for purposes of prostitution, as well as information on other forms of servitude and exploitation of women. On 16 April 1980, the Economic and Social Council had adopted resolution 1980/4 calling on the Secretary-General to prepare a report on the application of the Convention for the suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, emphasizing in particular the causes and socio-economic conditions which encourage the development of prostitution, as originally requested by the Commission on the Status of Women in resolution 1 (XXVII) of 4 April 1978. The Working Group on Slavery had been informed at its fourth session of the proposed report and had been invited to co-operate in it by Sub-Commission resolution 6B (XXXII). The representative of CSDH was happy to inform the Working Group that the study was now in its initial stages, and that the Centre would welcome any suggestions or information which could be provided by members of the Working Group or its Secretariat.

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