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Slavery

My Lords, I begin by thanking my noble friend Lady Howells of St Davids for opening today’s debate. As my noble friend reminded us in her powerful opening speech, discussion of the transatlantic slave trade and Britain’s role in it is a hugely emotional subject on which there are strongly held and opposing views. I am pleased that the commemoration events this year have led to a public discussion and debate about the issues; a debate we need to have as a nation. Today’s debate in this House, ranging as it did so widely,will do much in terms of contributing to that discussion. Two days ago, Kofi Annan addressed both Houses of Parliament on this subject in an excellent speech. He briefly traced the history of slavery in neolithic Europe, the ancient civilisations of Egypt and the Middle East, Greece, the Roman Empire and Africa. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, gave us a much more detailed analysis. Many noble Lords have already quoted from that speech; in fact, when I was listening I wondered whether we should just read the speech into Hansard for future reference, but I will also quote from that speech four short passages that have not already been used: "““In the long history of human wrongs the trade in human beings will go down as one of the greatest crimes ever committed … Hardly any part of the world is exempt from this stain on human history … In some parts of the world the slave trade was the first trade of any kind to be carried on over long distances on a large scale—and the means by which whole regions, such as Brazil, were first integrated into the world economy. The first wave of globalisation, one could say””." Kofi Annan went on to say—I believe that these words were quoted by the noble Baroness, Lady Young: "““the trade whose abolition we commemorate today was an abominable practice taken to its most abominable extreme””." The transatlantic slave trade was unique in terms of the destructive impact it had on Africa. It is estimated that more than 12 million Africans were transported and that some 2 million died. The impact of slavery still resonates in our society. The mindset that allowed people to kidnap their fellow human beings, imprison them in rotting dungeons for months, abuse them and work them to death on plantations, came out of a profound racism, a racism that led to some seeing Africans as subhuman, as cargo and chattels. My noble friend Lord Young referred to the incident on the ship the ““Zong””, that allowed one slave captain to murder 133 by throwing them overboard because they were worth more dead as an insurance claim for goods than alive at a slave auction. We also see its impact in the poverty and disadvantage on the African continent, in the challenges facing the Caribbean, which was the focus of the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Newby; and there are the contemporary forms of slavery described so graphically and movingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, in the forms of human trafficking—to which I will return—bonded labour, sexual exploitation, which was the focus of some of the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, and of course in street children, which was mentioned by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds. During the first part of the year the Government have focused on awareness raising and commemoration of the bicentenary. Our aims have been to raise awareness of the bicentenary, the transatlantic slave trade and Britain’s role in both the trade and abolition. I am pleased that my noble friend Lord Young of Norwood Green found the coin and the accompanying leaflet so helpful. I hope that other events during the year will also raise awareness and interest. We need to face the reality of what is one of the darkest and most uncomfortable chapters of our history. A number of noble Lords, including my noble friend Lady Howells and the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, mentioned the importance of education. That is why I am so pleased that the Government are looking to embed teaching about the slave trade in the curriculum permanently. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is currently consulting on a new draft secondary curriculum which for the first time will include the slave trade as a compulsory element in the key stage 3 history curriculum, but we recognise, as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Hornsey, that complex issues need to be addressed in teaching those matters and teacher training must play its part to ensure that our teachers have the confidence to teach them. Our aims have also been to commemorate those who suffered as a result of the slave trade, those who fought for abolition and those who ensured that the new laws were enforced. The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, and others, referred to the role played by the Royal Navy in policing the seas. I turn to contemporary forms of slavery. The noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, who unfortunately is not in his place but as we speak is in the Moses Room taking forward his interest in human rights in the debate on forced marriages, made reference to human trafficking, as did my noble friend Lord Young of Norwood Green and others. Human trafficking is one of the main forms of modern slavery: an appalling crime where people are treated as commodities and traded for profit. The Government are leading the way in tackling the problem domestically and internationally. We have a comprehensive integrated approach to human trafficking, which encompasses legislation, enforcement, international co-operation and support for victims. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, that support for victims is at the very heart of our approach. We have been funding the Poppy Project since March 2003 to provide safe shelter and support to assist in the recovery of adult female victims who have been trafficked into the United Kingdom for the purposes of sexual exploitation. In addition to providing support for victims, we have strengthened the legislation against trafficking. In March, we signed the Council of Europe Convention on Human Trafficking and, as was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, we published the UK action plan, setting out how we intend to tackle the problem domestically. If he has not seen a copy of the plan, I would be happy to send him one. I say to the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, that in March we launched a worldwide lobbying campaign on the ratification and implementation of international standards that prohibits slavery. We aim to secure increased ratification by the end of the year. The issue of Sudan was raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Cox. We will continue to press the Government of Sudan. I will take away the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. My noble friend Lord Morris of Handsworth referred to the legacy of the slave trade in terms of the poverty that we see around the world. The removal of a large section of the population created long-term problems and impoverished the African continent. We are committed to eliminating poverty, not only as an end in itself, but as part of our wider, integrated approach to tackling modern forms of slavery. We are playing a leading role in the fight against global poverty through our international development work, with a budget of some £6.86 billion in 2006. The budget will increase as we reach the UN target of 0.7 per cent of national income for development spending by 2013. Our work is focused on achieving the millennium development goals through debt relief, trade justice—which was mentioned by a number of noble Lords—programmes in tackling health and education inequalities, improving access to water and sanitation, improving governance and working in partnership with international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation. All of that is being done in the context of achieving sustainable development. The noble Baroness, Lady Cox, pressed me on the issue of education, particularly in northern Uganda. We fully recognise the importance of education and are spending some £8.5 billion over 10 years in partnership with African countries on primary education, focusing on girls’ education. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, and the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, on the link between poverty and underdevelopment. That is why many of our development programmes focus on tackling social exclusion, including in India. I am happy to write to the noble Earl and provide more detail about the work that we are doing in that area. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, raised the issue of trade and, in particular, the need for a fairer trading regime to assist the vulnerable economies in the Caribbean. I confirm that the Government will continue to work for an outcome to the Doha round, which puts development issues at its heart, and which will, of course, benefit those vulnerable economies. Within the EU, we will continue to work for transitional arrangements that are well funded to support diversification in Caribbean economies. We recognise that that diversification will take some time to deliver. The noble Lord will be aware of a project funded by the Department for International Development, focused on tackling HIV/AIDS in the region. I would be happy to talk to him in more detail about the link that he sees between those kinds of programmes and using sport as a mechanism for promoting greater awareness. What about our domestic agenda? We are committed to tackling the legacy of the slave trade in the UK, including tackling inequality, discrimination and racism. These issues were mentioned by my noble friends Lady Howells and Lord Morris, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, and other noble Lords. The Department for Communities and Local Government is taking forward the Government’s strategy for race equality and community cohesion, Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society, the first ever cross-government strategy to increase race equality and community cohesion. We will be providing£18 million over three years to support delivery of that strategy. The first annual update shows that we are making progress, but we cannot afford to be complacent. We face significant challenges in dealing with tensions at community level that have arisen from our increasing diversity. It is a source of strength, but it needs to be nurtured. We need to recognise that learning how to live together as different ethnic and religious groups requires joint work and constant vigilance. We need to address inequalities in achievement in our schools, particularly among young black boys. The Department for Education and Skills is already taking forward work to increase educational attainment among pupils from black and minority-ethnic communities. To support the Aiming High strategy, we have awarded the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant to provide funding for schools and local authorities in taking action to raise the attainment levels of minority-ethnic pupils. The Department for Communities and Local Government is taking forward the REACH project, which is specifically focused on raising aspirations and achievement among black boys and young men. Young men of black and of mixed black/white heritage experience disproportionately poor outcomes in education and are over-represented in our criminal justice system. Those issues were raised by my noble friend Lady Howells of St Davids. Noble Lords raised other specific issues. The noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, mentioned the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, which is a £9.5 million project with three main elements: a new display, a research institute and a resource centre. The Heritage Lottery Fund has supported the project and we are well aware of the significance that it will have in raising awareness of these issues up and down the country. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds mentioned the plight of street children. We are supporting the work of Child Hope International, which works with young people in Brazil and builds on earlier work that focused on street children. We contribute to nine projects through the Civil Society Challenge Fund, funded by the Department for International Development, to assist children and to help eliminate child labour. Three of those projects focus on assisting street children. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, asked about the 1998 rule relating to migrant domestic workers. Under the new points-based system for migration, there will not be a separate route for overseas domestic workers in private households. As part of our continuing work on trafficking, our emphasis will be on developing robust pre-entry procedures for all routes into the UK, including appropriate safeguards such as the identification of cases of possible abuse, to minimise the risk of subsequent exploitation. My noble friend Lord Clinton-Davis asked about prosecutions. I can talk about the issue of prosecutions for trafficking, but on other prosecution issues I will write to him. We do not feel that we have sufficient evidence regarding trafficking for forced labour to make a full assessment of whether that poses a significant problem for the UK. We need to improve our knowledge in this area. One of the difficulties that we face is our ability to distinguish between poor working conditions and situations that involve forced labour; an important indicator of that is the element of coercion. We also need to do more to raise awareness, because very often exploited immigrant workers do not consider themselves to be victims of crime. Even if we find the situation in the UK appalling, they consider it to be better than that in their country of origin. We need to raise awareness through training and the provision of guidance to workplace enforcement agencies, law enforcement agencies, the immigration authorities and front-line agencies so that we can do more to identify potential victims. The noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, also asked me whether we would establish an independent national rapporteur on trafficking. We have considered this and looked at the Dutch example. For the time being, we have decided that the best monitoring mechanism for the UK is that provided by the interdepartmental ministerial group chaired by my honourable friend Vernon Coaker. My noble friend Lord Clinton-Davis also spoke with great authority about the general situation facing asylum seekers and other immigrant workers in the United Kingdom. We will continue to look at our policy and its impact, and I particularly recognise the strength of feeling in the House on these issues. My noble friend Lord Morris mentioned the calls there have been for a national memorial day. March and August have both been mooted and we are using discussion during this year to enable us to come to a decision on this. I entirely agree with my noble friend Lord Morris about the need for a legacy fund. Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, is looking at this issue on behalf of the Government. In an article in November last year, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister wrote: "““It is hard to believe that what would now be a crime against humanity was legal at the time. Personally I believe the bicentenary offers us a chance not just to say how profoundly ""shameful the slave trade was, how we condemn its existence utterly and praise those who fought for its abolition, but also to express our deep sorrow that it ever happened, that it ever could have happened, and to rejoice at the different and better times we live in today””." The campaign for abolition was unique, bringing together diverse groups of people, many of them ordinary citizens, who put an end to a process of systematic exploitation and abuse based on profit. They were black and white, men and women, free citizens, slaves and former slaves, rich and poor. Many were denied the right to vote; some depended on industries linked to the trade. My noble friend Lord Soley is right. It was only when people were made aware of the brutality of the trade that the movement really took off. Yet long before we had mass communications—the telephone, the television, the internet—people came together and developed campaigning techniques which had never been used before. It was a moral campaign, a humanitarian campaign. They produced campaign literature and badges; they chanted slogans; they signed petitions in their hundreds of thousands; they brought legal cases and lobbied Parliament; and though poor, they undertook their own economic sanctions through a widespread national boycott of sugar. The abolitionists were forerunners of many of the campaigns for equality and social justice we have seen in modern times. The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, spoke particularly of the Clapham Sect. They were the forerunners of the global anti-apartheid movement, the forerunners of those who demand that we make poverty history. The abolition of the trade remains a landmark in the shared histories of Britain, countries on the African continent, the Caribbean and the Americas. We see it reflected in the richness of the African diaspora. This bicentenary provides a valuable opportunity to have a real debate about what it means to be British today and how the diverse cultures which comprise modern Britain can forge a common purpose, shared values and a common identity. My noble friend Lord Morris made reference to the confused identities which have come from slavery. Today’s debate is very different to the tone of the debate on this issue in Parliament 200 years ago and we should be proud of that. I should like to make one personal comment: participating in today’s debate are four members of this House who are descendants of slaves and that in itself says a great deal. This bicentenary year offers us all an opportunity to restate our strong determination to build a better world for all. In building that better world we need to address the issues of law and morality, as cogently put by my noble friend Lord Soley. We need to invest in all our communities and to do more to combat contemporary slavery. This is about individual and personal responsibility, and about collective action.It is about a legacy that recognises the reality of the past and helps us to build a better future. We as parliamentarians have a central role to play in the way that we debate, discuss and push forward any agenda on these issues.