On April 8, I had the privilege of attending the launch of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking’s new landmark report at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York City.
The Global Commission is an international initiative led by former British Prime Minister Baroness Theresa May to restore political momentum towards achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, which calls for the eradication of forced labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking by 2030. It is comprised of 16 commissioners, including former high-ranking government officials, policy experts, business leaders, and survivors, and aims to exert high-level political leverage to galvanize the international community and reinvigorate efforts to combat human trafficking.
In its new report, the Global Commission calls out the ways current attempts to address modern slavery are falling short, and highlights a number of concrete steps the international community needs to take to begin making meaningful improvement. The report itself, 150 pages in length, covers a lot of ground—it gives definitions for terms such as “modern slavery” and “human trafficking,” includes a number of real-life case studies, illustrates the pervasiveness of modern slavery, describes how different bodies and governments have been working to eradicate human trafficking, discusses who is most at risk to end up in forced labor or modern slavery, and much more. Notably, the report also includes practical, realistic, and deliverable recommendations for civil society organizations, regional bodies, international organizations, governments, and others to effectively combat modern slavery and human trafficking.
The report launch, which was held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the UN, was a full-day event attended by approximately 100 practitioners and experts on human trafficking. Baroness May provided the keynote address, noting that while the necessary political will for change is currently lacking, the Global Commission remains committed to the goal of ending modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030. She declared that this report is “an urgent call to action for the world,” a sentiment echoed throughout the day’s programming.
While completely eradicating human trafficking and modern slavery by 2030 may be an unrealistic, if noteworthy, goal, the Global Commission’s new report does provide an important reminder that much improvement is needed if we are to make meaningful progress on this important issue. As Baroness May noted in the report’s foreword, human trafficking has fallen down the political agenda, and action is needed now to reverse this trend. This new report is an important step in the right direction.