The 23rd of August marks UNESCO's International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This year the Remembrance Day is quickly followed by the UN World Conference Against Racism (31 August - 7 September 2001), where slavery is also one of the main issues under discussion.

Both these events provide an opportunity to remember the suffering of victims of slavery and to consider the legacy of the slave trade, including the many contemporary forms of slavery that exist today.

The 23 August 1791 is a crucial date in the abolition of the slave trade as it marked the start of the first successful slave rebellion on St Domingue (now Haiti). However, the Remembrance Day also focuses attention on the continuing global struggle to end slavery in all its forms around the world today.

In March 2000, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly endorsed the proposal that a Slavery Memorial Day should be marked each year in the United Kingdom, following a campaign launched by the New Nation newspaper. Anti-Slavery supported the proposal and urged the Prime Minister to choose either 23 August or 2 December (which is the United Nations International Day for the Abolition of the Slavery) as the proposed Memorial Day. There has still been no confirmation from the British Government that there will be an official Memorial Day.

Anti-Slavery believes that the legacy of the slave trade continues to have consequences in present times and remains at the root of some acts of racism and xenophobia. The United Nations World Conference Against Racism therefore provides an important opportunity for all States involved in the slave trade to acknowledge their role and make a formal apology to the victims of that trade and their descendants for their part in this human rights violation.

Anti-Slavery considers that those States that have benefited from slavery also have a moral duty to grant reparation to victims of slave trade. This should include undertaking measures to ensure that the truth about the slave trade is accurately documented and not forgotten, for example through education programmes, memorials and commemorative days.

However, reparation should also take the form of material compensation from States that have benefited from the slave trade. This compensation should be targeted at redressing the impact of slavery on the most disadvantaged groups and communities. The method of compensation could take many forms, including: full payment of 0.7 per cent of GNP to development assistance, debt cancellation, reduced tariffs or import duties, technology transfers, or trust funds on a country by country basis to provide remedies to those who have suffered most as a consequence of the slave trade.

States need to acknowledge their role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and address the legacy of the slave trade for many communities in the world today. Governments must also make it a priority to tackle the many contemporary forms of slavery which affect millions of people around the world and are often linked to racism, discrimination and xenophobia.