Oral Statement submitted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (A Status NHRI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

Title: Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery

Mr President,

On behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission – an A status national human rights institution of the United Kingdom - I welcome the opportunity to present this statement in response to the report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.

We welcome the appointment of the Special Rapporteur and thank her predecessor for her significant contribution to promoting anti-slavery initiatives across the globe. We would like to bring to the Council’s attention a number of UK issuesincluding:

  • the need to strengthen national anti-slavery legislative frameworks, improve collection of disaggregated data, and ensure victims of slavery have appropriate remedies and rehabilitation; and
  • the elimination of domestic servitude – which disproportionately affects women, ethnic minorities and overseas domestic workers.

The Commission welcomes efforts to improve Britain’s anti-slavery legislative framework, through the Modern Slavery Bill (applicable to England and Wales) and forthcoming legislation in Scotland. However, we believeimprovements should be made to ensure compliance with international standards, including:

  • improving data collection and analysis to enable the state to fulfil its positive obligations to investigate and enforce the law; and
  • strengthening the statutory independence, powers and resources of the proposed Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

The Commission has recommended that the Modern Slavery Bill reinstate the ability - which existed until 2012 –for overseas domestic workers to change employers.

The Commission is supporting legal cases:

  • to establish that vulnerable workers who have been brought to the UK illegally should not be barred from bringing claims of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 against their employers because they lack a lawful employment contract; and
  • to clarify whether vulnerable workers who bring successful discrimination claims are entitled to compensation.

Thank you, Mr President.