Reframing modern slavery policy: A call for a human rights-based approach
To mark Human Rights Day, the director of the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), Murray Hunt, argues that it’s time to adopt a human rights-based approach to UK modern slavery policy. The following is an extract from his blog, based on remarks made at today’s Westminster Legal Policy Forum event, Next Steps for Tackling Modern Slavery in the UK.
On this day in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed.
The UN has designated the 10th December as Human Rights Day, the day on which we remember each year Eleanor Roosevelt’s crucial insight that human rights are universal because they are about everyone’s fundamental need for security.
Modern slavery is a human rights issue and proper appreciation of the implications of this is crucial to how we think about modern slavery policy going forward.
Modern slavery is a human rights issue because it occurs when a person is being subjected to exploitation so severe that it takes away their personal autonomy and their dignity – fundamental human rights to which everyone is entitled.
The implications of this for the development of future policy on Modern Slavery just got bigger, because one of the most significant recent developments for this area of policy is that since the General Election in July this year we have a Government which is unequivocal in its commitment to international law, including the UK’s obligations under human rights treaties. Anyone in doubt about that should read the Prime Minister’s recent address to the UN General Assembly and the Attorney General’s Bingham Centre lecture, The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism.
This is a fundamental and potentially transformative change in the modern slavery policy environment.
Modern slavery is the subject of many international legal obligations which are binding on the UK – from the Palermo Protocol, through the ECHR with its prohibition on slavery and servitude, to the European Convention Against Trafficking – the bespoke regional human rights treaty on modern slavery.
Having a Government that unequivocally wants to act compatibly with human rights law provides an opportunity for a fundamental reset: the time has come for a truly human rights-based approach to modern slavery policy.
That means we need to spell out clearly the many implications that such an approach has for the future of the UK’s modern slavery policy. They are legion, but this blog focuses on just six of the most immediate implications:
- Making immigration legislation HR compatible
- Reforming the NRM
- Focusing on prevention
- Improving legal enforcement
- Strengthening the legal duties on business to proactively address MS in their supply chains
- Meaningful participation of survivors
Read the rest of this article at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre
