London, Dec. 13, GNA – The Commonwealth has launched a landmark ‘Roadmap’ to end contemporary slavery in member states by 2025.
This is in line with the decision taken by the leaders at their summit in London in April when they made firm commitment to “eradicating forced labour, ending modern slavery and human trafficking, and securing the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour in all its forms by 2025”.
The move is also in step with the UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7 (SDG 8.7), which is essentially linked to the eradication of all forms of exclusion, exploitation, and human rights abuses.
The goal is to create societies that are more equal, more resilient, and more tolerant, with real pathways to upwards social mobility.
The new ‘Roadmap,’ designed by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), identifies four areas of action that have the ability to accelerate progress to meet the 2025 target.
These are social norms, attitudes and behaviours; law and policy frameworks; social and economic assets and safety nets; and robust data collection.
The CHRI’s David White said “for the first time the ‘Roadmap’ introduces a comprehensive indicator framework to track progress and hold governments and civil society to account.
“Building on the indicators developed by the WalkFree Foundation for their Global Slavery Index, this framework is an international first.
“We are proposing to track not just the introduction of legal and policy frameworks, but their actual implementation and effectiveness, as well as the quality of protection mechanisms.”
It is estimated that the global human trafficking business generates upwards of US$150 billion
annually.
Launched this week, the report notes: “The overarching cause and driver of contemporary forms of slavery is greed, economic opportunism and weak regulation.
“As long as the enslavement and exploitation of other human beings drives profits up and the costs of economic activity down with impunity, there will be slavery in the world.”
It added: “Commonwealth states have shown a strong commitment to action under SDG 8.7, especially in terms of ratifying relevant international instruments and strengthening domestic legal frameworks.
“However, much remains to be done.
“This will require significant and sustained progress across the entire SDG framework because the human rights abuses connected to SDG 8.7 stem from a set of practices that sit at the root of the current global social, economic and political systems…
“We have identified four areas of action to meet the ambition of SDG 8.7: change social norms, attitudes, and behaviours; improve laws and policy frameworks; strengthen social and economic assets and safety nets; and collect robust data for evidence-based response.”
The CHRI, with headquarters in India, is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that has been working for the practical realisation of human rights across the Commonwealth over the last 30 years.
In 2001 it opened an office in Accra to pay greater attention to the 15 Commonwealth countries in Africa.
The CHRI chose Ghana because it is “a stable, democratic and increasingly influential African Commonwealth country, where there was also a welcome for the initiative”.
“As it slowly took root in Ghana, the office had to deal with similar dilemmas as the office in India had: to balance its role as an international organisation having a wide geographical mandate, with the expectations from a human rights organisation within Ghana itself,” the CHRI added.
GNA
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