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Slavery

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Howells, has introduced this debate in her uniquely calm, direct and persuasive style. I have been lucky to join her and my noble friend Lady Young on the panel advising the new exhibition in Westminster Hall. Looking at it again yesterday, I wondered if we were right to make so much of the historic achievement and rather less of the legacy and of contemporary forms of slavery. One dominant image there of slavery is of the sea. ““Britannia rules the waves””, we used to sing at school. We still believed it as late as 1956. My own family history is of naval conquests, losses and discoveries. The Fourth Earl of Sandwich was the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of the legendary Olaudah Equiano, whose own personal example was an inspiration to the abolition campaign. We still have pride in this country in our modern Navy and our Merchant Navy and their many achievements. But we can have no pride in the terrible slave trade and the scandalous way that human cargo was used to achieve and build on some of these excesses and to satisfy our demand for cheap imports. Through the bicentenary we are at last developing a complete record of our collective action as a Parliament, first in carrying on this shameful trade and second in abolishing it—for the time being. The exhibition is designed to do both of these and, as we have heard, is part of the national series of events to commemorate abolition. I also recommend the scholarly book The British Slave Trade: Abolition, Parliament and People, which contains some highly original research on the voting records of both MPs and Peers of that time. I cannot say that my family comes out very well. I do not understand the logic of reparation because, in spite of what the noble Lord, Lord Lester, has said—and I am sorry he is not here—there can be no present moral or legal government responsibility for these actions; apology and atonement can only be symbolic. But I wholly support positive actions of education and remembrance and perhaps an annual day being set aside, as the noble Lord, Lord Morris, mentioned. On legacy, I support Anti-Slavery International’s recommendations, which are well known to the Government, and I declare an interest as a council member for the past nine years. First, there must be educational activities which reflect the full history of slavery and the slave trade, including the struggle against contemporary forms of slavery. This is happening. Then, we should support projects which target countries and communities most affected by the slave trade. This could include making additional funding available to community projects in the UK, especially those which will tackle discrimination, marginalisation and under-achievement, as well as providing additional development funding to countries known to have suffered as a result of the slave trade. This surely goes some way towards reparation. Kofi Annan has again singled out Africa as a special focus of assistance. Today I shall only touch on two aspects of slavery outside the UK and two closer to home. Internationally, I would like to see this Government building on their reputation at the UN, first, by working harder towards the universal ratification and implementation of standards which prohibit slavery. The 1956 UN supplementary convention has only been ratified by 119 states 50 years later, despite the fact that it deals with other issues such as debt bondage, which affects millions. The 2000 UN protocol on trafficking in people has had quite a high profile, but the number of states supporting that has remained fairly static, at 117. While the new UN Human Rights Council provides a real opportunity to monitor and report on modern forms of slavery, does the noble Baroness agree that the working group on contemporary forms of slavery has really had its day and should be replaced by a special rapporteur or an enhanced and more effective mechanism to monitor and combat slavery? I hope that the Government will ensure that slavery issues are addressed in international and national poverty reduction strategies, because I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, that there is a clear link between modern slavery, poverty and discrimination. Here I give one brief example from India, which is a thriving economy in danger of falling well short of international human rights standards. Take the practice of Jogini, which I have mentioned in the House before after a visit to Hyderabad. Under that pernicious system, young girls are dedicated to a goddess and then become the common sexual property of the devotees. Although outlawed in 1988, it continues today and in Andhra Pradesh 16,000 women and girls were recently estimated to be affected. A girl may be dedicated either to give thanks for survival from illness or to gain the goddess’s favour and protection for something. The lack of male offspring is also given as a reason for making the dedication. The girl is simply offered like a sacrifice; she has no choice in whether she becomes dedicated. Anti-Slavery International and Christian Aid are among many NGOs working with Indian partners on such issues, but how often do the Government mention those unacceptable practices in the course of diplomacy? I am not convinced that we have got over our postcolonial shyness in India, which is one of the major locations of modern slavery. Can the noble Baroness reassure me that social exclusion is moving higher up the agenda of the UK and EU-India dialogue on human rights, and that those issues are always examined within the PRSP strategy? I look forward to hearing her response to the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, with whom I strongly agree about the work of CWEAC and how it can be continued in Sudan. Back at home, I hope that some noble Lords were able to see the excellent photographic exhibition in St Paul's Cathedral called ““Slave Britain””, which was mounted by PANOS with support from Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty and others. One of the haunting images from it is in the exhibition in Westminster Hall, showing a 68 year-old Lithuanian mother of two, Stasa, both of whose daughters were trafficked, one to Germany and England. "““I have lost them both””," she said. "““I have one wish, and that’s for my daughters to come back, but after what they’ve been through, I don’t believe they’ll ever be able to live a normal life again””." The Government have made considerable progress with trafficking legislation and should be congratulated on that, but when do they expect to move to the next stage and ratify the Council of Europe convention of 2005, which provides minimum standards of protection? Will the Government establish an independent national rapporteur on trafficking in human beings in the UK, with a similar role to that of the Dutch national rapporteur, within the action plan? Will they give the rapporteur a particular focus on child trafficking, which I know concerns many NGOs here? There is also the equally serious problem of domestic workers. Statistics collected by Kalayaan, a charity which works with migrant domestic workers, confirm that they face forced labour conditions as well as abuse and exploitative working conditions. Out of 385 workers registered between April 2005 and March 2006, nearly a quarter reported physical abuse and a similar number said that they were locked in the house; 71 per cent had been deprived of food; and 86 per cent worked more than 16 hours a day. That may be a small sample but it says enough about the failure of our legislation to catch up with employers. Will the Government make a commitment to retain the 1998 rule relating to migrant domestic workers, which gives them one-year renewable visas and the right to change their employer? That rule was introduced by the Government and has since helped to protect migrant workers from being reduced to conditions of servitude. Removing that right, as is planned, will undoubtedly lead to an increase in trafficking, forced labour and exploitation. The slavery bicentenary, while making much of our ability to overcome the past, must also give us more opportunities to eradicate the most oppressive contemporary forms of slavery. Those images are not all conveniently out of sight over the horizon but before our very eyes.