The 25th session of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery focused on the issue of bonded labour, also known as debt bondage or debt slavery. The Working Group received chilling testimony about some of the 20 million bonded labourers reported to be enslaved in this opening year of the 21st century. It heard about the activities of both non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and some governments trying to address the problem. It seemed there was little to mention in the way of specific action by the United Nations system itself, although the International Labour Organization is scheduled to consider a major report on bonded labour and other types of forced labour next year.

The Working Group indicated in some detail what both governments and inter-governmental organisations ought be doing to address the predicament of the world's 20 million bonded labourers, and I urge representatives of both governments and NGOs to ensure that these recommendations are followed and implemented.

When Anti-Slavery International presented information to the Working Group six weeks ago, one of the countries where we mentioned an established pattern of bonded labour, effecting at least 100,000 adults and children, was the Kingdom of Nepal. I am pleased to be able to report that subsequently, on 17 July, Nepal's Cabinet announced its decision to end the practice of bonded labour with immediate effect. Anti-Slavery understands that a Bill is currently being drafted which will translate this statement of intent into enforceable law.

The Cabinet's decision to end bonded labour came after years of campaigning and a two-and-a-half month period of protests by bonded labourers and their supporters. The protests started on 1 May 2000, when a group of 19 bonded labourers in Kailali District sought their release by filing a case against their landlord, a former government minister. The refusal by local government officials to register the case led the bonded labourers to take further action. On 20 May, 20,000 people held a demonstration that shut down the district capital, until officials finally registered the case.

The announcement of abolition represents a very significant advance in Nepal, and the Government now has to take practical steps to turn its announcement into reality, to ensure bonded labourers a sustainable income and minimum wage, and, in the case of agricultural workers, rights to the land they have been working, often for generations.

It is precisely this challenge of translating law into practice, which, the Working Group has often heard, has defeated attempts to eradicate bonded labour in other countries. We have noted that governments throughout the world appear willing to downplay their obligations by claiming that slavery does not occur in their jurisdiction or, in the case of bonded labour, that the numbers involved are much lower than suggested by independent research. This reaction is based in part on an assumption that slavery is a thing of the past, and on insufficient knowledge of what constitutes slavery, and in part by an unwillingness to confront the reality of slavery today.

So, for example, Pakistan's Head of State declared last April that his Government was going to "crackdown under the law on the bonded labour mafia". Human rights activists applauded his words, but were not impressed the next month when a government ministry told a representative of the European Union that government officials could hardly find any cases of bonded labour in the country. The Government told the ILO last year that the total number of bonded labourers in Pakistan was between 5,000 and 7,000 people. This estimate seems to be quite unrealistic. In January 1999, a leading human rights lawyer, Asma Jahangir, estimated that there were 50,000 bonded labourers in southern Sindh province alone.

Government estimates of the total number of bonded labourers are similarly unrealistic in India, with a government representative at this year's International Labour Conference referring to 17,000 currently being rehabilitated, while workers¹ representatives indicated the number still bonded is in the millions. The Conference's Committee on the Application of Standards expressed its "concern about the disparity of statistics over the years and urged the Government to undertake a comprehensive and authoritative survey." There appears to be a similar need for surveys in other countries where reports of bonded labour have been made, but the scale of the problem has not been recognised. This would allow governments everywhere to make a realistic assessment of the scale of the abuse occurring, and to take appropriate action to put an end to bonded labour.

Thank you Chairperson.