CNN
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A group of powerful anti-slavery advocates issued a warning Tuesday, declaring that “millions of lives are at risk” unless urgent, coordinated international action is taken to eliminate modern slavery by the year 2030.
Chaired by former UK prime minister, Baroness Theresa May, the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking formally delivered a new report to UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York. The 150-page report, entitled “No Country is Immune,” paints a grim picture of systemic failures and global inaction, while outlining clear steps needed to provide help to the millions of people currently trapped in modern slavery worldwide.
“I think this is the greatest human rights issue of our time, and it is a moral stain on our humanity that 50 million people – men, women, and children – around the globe are in slavery today,” May told CNN in an interview after delivering the report.
According to the commission, the report is meant as a wake-up call to members of the United Nations, warning that failure to act will not only hinder the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, which aims to eradicate modern slavery by 2030, but could also endanger countless more lives. It calls for immediate, tangible changes across governments, businesses and civil society sectors.
“Talking to organizations involved in supporting victims and dealing with this issue, we realized the political will to act had gone. And that’s primarily why we’ve produced this report, to raise the political momentum and get people to recognize they need to act now,” said May.
Central to the report is a newly developed Prevention Framework, modeled after the 2014 Prevention of Genocide Framework by Adama Dieng, former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Advisor of the Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide. This model seeks to help nations understand the root causes of modern slavery and provide practical tools for identifying and combating its many forms.
An estimated 50 million people worldwide are enslaved today, which includes forced labor and forced marriages.
The commission’s policy recommendations include urging UN member states to adopt enforceable and effective domestic laws, establish a unified global definition of modern slavery and demand greater accountability from businesses to eliminate forced labor in global supply chains.
Also in attendance at the report launch event was Nasreen Sheikh, a survivor of modern slavery turned advocate, who urged world leaders to confront the consequences of unconscious global consumption and economic indifference.
“The solution is really we need to build a system that is transparent,” Sheikh told CNN. “We know that in our economic system, slavery is embedded in everything we consume. But we can change that by becoming aware, becoming conscious, asking questions and holding businesses and the governments accountable to say, ‘this is not okay.’ We are not going to consume someone else’s suffering. If it contains slavery, we don’t want to consume that.”