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Slavery

My Lords, I am particularly grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Howells, for concentrating our thoughts and aims today on the legacy of the slave trade, and I am especially grateful for her personal and powerful comments in introducing the debate. There is a real danger that we shall see slavery as part of a past era, although perhaps that is less likely now in this House following the powerful and effective speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Cox. It is right that we express our gratitude for the measures which were taken 200 years ago to begin the abolition of the slave trade and, later, for the abolition of slavery. It is important that apologies are expressed for the involvement, and indeed leadership, of our country in that trade and of the institutions of our country, including the Church of England, in perpetuating slavery 200 years ago. I am pleased that the General Synod of the Church of England has expressed its apology for the ownership of plantations and slaves. I repeat that apology to your Lordships' House today. I also apologise for the ways in which, 200 years ago, Christians misused scripture so tragically in defence of the slave trade. That may have something to teach us Christians or members of other religious traditions within our country and our society today. However, more crucial is what we shall do to deal with the current legacies, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, has just referred: the continuing slavery into which people are placed in our own world. I have three points to make. The first is the plight of street children across the world, most particularly in Brazil. I ask what the United Kingdom can do, along with its international partners, to tackle that tragedy. In many parts of the world, it is a direct legacy of slavery.Six times as many enslaved Africans went to Brazil than went to the USA. For over a century, their descendants have been neglected and abused, so millions of children scavenge daily on the streets. Boys, but not only boys, are prey to drug gangs; and girls, but not only girls, are prey to underage prostitution. One in three of those street children dies before they are 18 years old. Much work is being done by charities, many of them Christian-based, to rescue street children and to transform their lives and those of their families. That work, like most voluntary work, is absolutely crucial to those who are helped, but it is also a drop in the ocean. Only by a concerted international effort can this legacy of the slave trade be tackled. I hope that the Minister will be able to say something about new initiatives that can be taken on that issue. Secondly, I follow the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, in reflecting on the way in which the abolition of the slave trade and reflection on it during this year has enabled us to go some way towards uncovering the viciousness of sex trafficking and the exploitation of women. Sometimes that exploitation is developed alongside sex tourism. I welcome the measures taken to discover and punish sex tourists who take advantage of that form of slavery. I also welcome the work of charities in countries such as India to rescue children from that form of slavery. I acknowledge that only by international abhorrence and concerted efforts can that be ended. Sex slavery is not a matter for faraway countries, but it is prevalent here in the UK. CHASTE—Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking Across Europe—estimates that something like 4,000 women are held in sex trafficking locations in the UK today. A culture of demand is driving the sex industry which neither government nor churches are doing anything like enough to quell. I hope that Members of the House will demonstrate their support for ““Not-for-sale Sunday”” on 20 May, sponsored by CHASTE, which is an attempt to unite for positive change in our wider society for tackling the culture on which slave owners of our day thrive. The sexualising of society is a major driver of slavery in our culture. Much more needs to be done to tackle that basic part of our culture on which sex trafficking is built. My third point is rather different and follows on from the Liverpool examples given by the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper. We should recognise the extent to which our cultural heritage is based around the profits of slavery and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport should take more seriously its obligations to remind us of that. I welcome the efforts made by Harewood House in Leeds to encourage visitors this summer to reflect on how it is the product of slavery profits made by the Lascelles family. The same is true of many of our National Trust properties created or enhanced by those profits. Their beauty and attractions are based on human blood and terror. There should be a real uneasiness as we enjoy their attractiveness this summer and commit ourselves to do something about slavery in our own generation. There is an uncomfortable identity between the time of classic gracious living in this country, withthe English country-house garden at its best, and the height of profit made from the enslavement of fellow human beings. I hope that the National Trustwill help us to reflect on our complicity in that viciousness, along with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, so that as we consider and reflect upon slavery today, we can tackle the legacy of the slave trade with a new determination to deal with continual racial prejudice within our own country and its institutions and to exterminate slavery in our own generation.