Article 7 of the Slavery Convention provides that “the High Contracting Parties undertake to communicate to each other and to the Secretary-General . . . any laws and regulations which they may enact with a view to the application of the provisions of the present Convention.” There is also a similar obligation to notify the Secretary-General of any measures implemented in national law pursuant to the provisions of the Supplementary Convention (art. 8(2)). States parties agree but are not obliged to send information on measures implemented in accordance with the slavery conventions to the Secretary-General, who in turn communicates such information to the Economic and Social Council for discussion “with a view to making further recommendations for the abolition of slavery.”
These provisions have been criticized as having little effect on the fulfillment of States’ obligations and contain no effective implementation mechanism for the provisions of the conventions aimed at abolishing slavery.
Compared with the reporting and monitoring mechanisms of other more recent human rights instruments, the reporting clauses of the Slavery Convention and the Supplementary Convention lack the requisite periodicity and specificity. Most importantly, the slavery treaties do not designate a treaty body to receive and comment on reports.
On May 17, 1974, a Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
was established by the Economic and Social Council decisions 16 (LVI) and 17 (LVI). The Working Group, which began its work in 1975, was mandated to monitor the application of the Slavery Conventions and review the situation in various parts of the world; develop and study a specific theme each year; and submit proposals for action at the national and international levels.
In September 2007, the Human Rights Council in resolution 6/14 established a new mandate on Contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences. This mandate provided for a Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery who would replace the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery in order to better address the issue of contemporary forms of slavery within the United Nations system. The Special Rapporteur could access a range of information sources, identify best practices, and recommend actions and measures to be taken at the national, regional and international level. The Special Rapporteur also coordinates his/her activities in order to avoid duplication with other existing human rights mechanisms and treaty bodies, including the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on children in armed conflict and the Special Rapporteur on human rights of migrants, as well as the Board of Trustees for the United Nations Voluntary Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur was renewed by the Human Rights Council for a three-year terms on 29 September 2010, and 26 September 2013.
Canada also has obligations concerning the abolition of slavery under the ICCPR and its Optional Protocol ratified by Canada in 1976. Canada’s Sixth Report to the ICCPR’s Human Rights Committee was submitted February 2015 and covers the period 2005 to 2009. However this report makes little reference to Canada’s efforts to abolish slavery and the slave trade.