UN rights expert lauds Belgium anti-slavery framework News
UN rights expert lauds Belgium anti-slavery framework

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur Urmila Bhoola [official website] on Thursday lauded Belgium’s multi-disciplinary approach to combating modern slavery but encouraged the country to adopt stronger measures [press release] to raise public awareness of the problem and increase regulatory focus on proper victim detection and identification. In particular, Bhoola stressed that all “front-line actors” such as police, social and health services and the guardians of unaccompanied minors receive training to identify and aid victims of modern slavery. Bhoola gave her statement at the conclusion of an eight-day visit [press release] to Belgium, where she gathered information on the legislative, policy and institutional framework to combat slavery and protect the rights of its victims.

Approximately 36 million people in the world live in a form of modern slavery [JURIST report], the Global Slavery Index (GSI) [advocacy website] reported [text, PDF] in November. For the purposes of the study, GSI defined modern slavery as involving “one person possessing or controlling another person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal.” The data found within the 2014 report was based on random sampling surveys which GSI claims used an improved methodology to uncover statistics of modern slavery that have been previously unknown. The report also provided an analysis of how governments are working to eliminate acts of modern slavery within their countries and which nations are vulnerable to continued human rights violations. GSI found that countries with government instability and high levels of prejudice have the highest levels of modern slavery and are the most vulnerable.