Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery

 

SECTION I

INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES SIMILAR TO SLAVERY

Article 1

Each of the States Parties to this Convention shall take all practicable and
necessary legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and
as soon as possible the complete abolition or abandonment of the following
institutions and practices, where they still exist and whether or not they
are covered by the definition of slavery contained in article 1 of the
Slavery Convention signed at Geneva on 25 September 1926:

(a) Debt bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising from
a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under
his control as security for a debt, if the value of those services as
reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or
the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and
defined;

(b) Serfdom, that is to say, the condition or status of a tenant who is
by law, custom or agreement bound to live and labour on land belonging to
another person and to render some determinate service to such other person,
whether for reward or not, and is not free to change his status;

(c) Any institution or practice whereby:

(i) A woman, without the right to refuse, is promised or given in
marriage on payment of a consideration in money or in kind to
her parents, guardian, family or any other person or group; or

(ii) The husband of a woman, his family, or his clan, has the right
to transfer her to another person for value received or
otherwise; or

(iii) A woman on the death of her husband is liable to be inherited
by another person;

(d) Any institution or practice whereby a child or young person under
the age of 18 years is delivered by either or both of his natural parents
or by his guardian to another person, whether for reward or not, with a view
to the exploitation of the child or young person or of his labour.

Article 2

With a view to bringing to an end the institutions and practices mentioned
in article 1 (c) of this Convention, the States Parties undertake to
prescribe, where appropriate, suitable minimum ages of marriage, to
encourage the use of facilities whereby the consent of both parties to a
marriage may be freely expressed in the presence of a competent civil or
religious authority, and to encourage the registration of marriages.

SECTION II

THE SLAVE TRADE

Article 3

1. The act of conveying or attempting to convey slaves from one country to
another by whatever means of transport, or of being accessory thereto, shall
be a criminal offence under the laws of the States Parties to this
Convention and persons convicted thereof shall be liable to very severe
penalties.

2. (a) The States Parties shall take all effective measures to prevent ships
and aircraft authorized to fly their flags from conveying slaves and to
punish persons guilty of such acts or of using national flags for that
purpose.

(b) The States Parties shall take all effective measures to ensure that
their ports, airfields and coasts are not used for the conveyance of slaves.

3. The States Parties to this Convention shall exchange information in order
to ensure the practical co-ordination of the measures taken by them in
combating the slave trade and shall inform each other of every case of the
slave trade, and of every attempt to commit this criminal offence, which
comes to their notice.

Article 4

Any slave who takes refuge on board any vessel of a State Party to this
Convention shall ipso facto be free.

SECTION III

SLAVERY AND INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES SIMILAR TO SLAVERY

Article 5

In a country where the abolition or abandonment of slavery, or of the
institutions or practices mentioned in article I of this Convention, is not
yet complete, the act of mutilating, branding or otherwise marking a slave
or a person of servile status in order to indicate his status, or as a
punishment, or for any other reason, or of being accessory thereto, shall
be a criminal offence under the laws of the States Parties to this
Convention and persons convicted thereof shall be liable to punishment.

Article 6

1. The act of enslaving another person or of inducing another person to give
himself or a person dependent upon him into slavery, or of attempting these
acts, or being accessory thereto, or being a party to a conspiracy to
accomplish any such acts, shall be a criminal offence under the laws of the
States Parties to this Convention and persons convicted thereof shall be
liable to punishment.

2. Subject to the provisions of the introductory paragraph of article 1 of
this Convention, the provisions of paragraph 1 of the present article shall
also apply to the act of inducing another person to place himself or a
person dependent upon him into the servile status resulting from any of the
institutions or practices mentioned in article 1, to any attempt to perform
such acts, to bring accessory thereto, and to being a party to a conspiracy
to accomplish any such acts.

SECTION IV

DEFINITIONS

Article 7

For the purposes of the present Convention:

(a) “Slavery “means, as defined in the Slavery Convention of 1926, the
status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching
to the right of ownership are exercised, and “slave “means a person in
such condition or status;

(b) “A person of servile status “means a person in the condition or
status resulting from any of the institutions or practices mentioned in
article 1 of this Convention;

(c) “Slave trade “means and includes all acts involved in the capture,
acquisition or disposal of a person with intent to reduce him to slavery;
all acts involved in the acquisition of a slave with a view to selling or
exchanging him; all acts of disposal by sale of exchange of a person
acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged; and, in general, every act
of trade or transport in slaves by whatever means of conveyance.

SECTION V

CO-OPERATION BETWEEN STATES PARTIES
AND COMMUNICATION OF INFORMATION

Article 8

1. The States Parties to this Convention undertake to co-operate with each
other and with the United Nations to give effect to the foregoing
provisions.

2. The Parties undertake to communicate to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations copies of any laws, regulations and administrative measures
enacted or put into effect to implement the provisions of this Convention.

3. The Secretary-General shall communicate the information received under
paragraph 2 of this article to the other Parties and to the Economic and
Social Council as part of the documentation for any discussion which the
Council might undertake with a view to making further recommendations for
the abolition of slavery, the slave trade or the institutions and practices
which are the subject of this Convention.

SECTION VI

FINAL CLAUSES

Article 9

No reservations may be made to this Convention.

Article 10

Any dispute between States Parties to this Convention relating to its
interpretation or application, which is not settled by negotiation, shall
be referred to the International Court of Justice at the request of any one
of the parties to the dispute, unless the parties concerned agree on another
mode of settlement.

Article 11

1. This Convention shall be open until 1 July 1957 for signature by any
State Member of the United Nations or of a specialized agency. It shall be
subject to ratification by the signatory States, and the instruments of
ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, who shall inform each signatory and acceding State.

2. After 1 July 1957 this Convention shall be open for accession by any
State Member of the United Nations or of a specialized agency, or by any
other State to which an invitation to accede has been addressed by the
General Assembly of the United Nations. Accession shall be effected by the
deposit of a formal instrument with the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, who shall inform each signatory and acceding State.

Article 12

1. This Convention shall apply to all nonself-governing, trust, colonial and
other non-metropolitan territories for the international relations of which
any State Party is responsible; the Party concerned shall, subject to the
provisions of paragraph 2 of this article, at the time of signature,
ratification or accession declare the non-metropolitan territory or
territories to which the Convention shall apply ipso facto as a result of
such signature, ratification or accession.

2. In any case in which the previous consent of a non-metropolitan territory
is required by the constitutional laws or practices of the Party or of the
non-metropolitan territory, the Party concerned shall endeavour to secure
the needed consent of the non-metropolitan territory within the period of
twelve months from the date of signature of the Convention by the
metropolitan State, and when such consent has been obtained the Party shall
notify the Secretary-General. This Convention shall apply to the territory
or territories named in such notification from the date of its receipt by
the Secretary-General.

3. After the expiry of the twelve month period mentioned in the preceding
paragraph, the States Parties concerned shall inform the Secretary-General
of the results of the consultations with those non-metropolitan territories
for whose international relations they are responsible and whose consent to
the application of this Convention may have been withheld.

Article 13

1. This Convention shall enter into force on the date on which two States
have become Parties thereto.

2. It shall thereafter enter into force with respect to each State and
territory on the date of deposit of the instrument of ratification or
accession of that State or notification of application to that territory.

Article 14

1. The application of this Convention shall be divided into successive
periods of three years, of which the first shall begin on the date of entry
into force of the Convention in accordance with paragraph I of article 13.

2. Any State Party may denounce this Convention by a notice addressed by
that State to the Secretary-General not less than six months before the
expiration of the current three-year period. The Secretary-General shall
notify all other Parties of each such notice and the date of the receipt
thereof.

3. Denunciations shall take effect at the expiration of the current three-
year period.

4. In cases where, in accordance with the provisions of article 12, this
Convention has become applicable to a non-metropolitan territory of a Party,
that Party may at any time thereafter, with the consent of the territory
concerned, give notice to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
denouncing this Convention separately in respect of that territory. The
denunciation shall take effect one year after the date of the receipt of
such notice by the Secretary-General, who shall notify all other Parties of
such notice and the date of the receipt thereof.

Article 15

This Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish
texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the
United Nations Secretariat . The Secretary-General shall prepare a certified
copy thereof for communication to States Parties to this Convention, as well
as to all other States Members of the United Nations and of the specialized
agencies.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, being duly authorized thereto by their
respective Governments, have signed this Convention on the date appearing
opposite their respective signatures.

DONE at the European Office of the United Nations at Geneva, this seventh
day of September one thousand nine hundred and fifty-six.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Conventions: Chronological Index 1951-1970, Human Rights conventions, International Court of Justice, United Nations Secretariat, country.