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Article

2 Dec 2011

Author:
Ban Ki-moon, UN

Message of the Secretary-General for 2011

Millions of human beings are subjected to an existence that is almost unfathomable in its degradation and inhumanity. Debt bondage, serfdom and forced labour; trafficking in persons and trafficking for the purpose of organ removal; sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour...– these are among the manifestations of slavery today. All are crimes and egregious violations of human rights. To eradicate contemporary forms of slavery, we need new strategies and measures that can unite all actors. While Governments bear the primary responsibility, the private sector has an integral role to play...[T]he Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, outlining how states and businesses should implement the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework...The corporate responsibility to respect includes ensuring that their activities do not cause or contribute to contemporary forms of slavery in the workplace, and taking steps to stop it from happening in supply chains and elsewhere.