Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms

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Abolishing Slavery
Group against Slavery, Apartheid, Gross Human Exploitations and Human Degradation”.
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That
proposal was not eventually accepted.
141. The most recent recommendation by the Working Group on the issue of the “[s]lavery-like
practices of apartheid and colonialism” was issued in 1992, when it referred to earlier recommen-
dations to focus attention on the situation of vulnerable groups, particularly women and children,
and decided to devote “attention to ways and means to assist victims of apartheid in order to mit-
igate its consequences”.
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2. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance; historic responsibility and reparations
142. The longer individuals are kept in a situation of slavery, the more difficult it often becomes
to reintegrate them into their original social environment. Consequently, there is a particular
urgency to secure their release from their slavery status, while ensuring it is done in an ordered
way that does not jeopardize their physical or mental well-being. Rehabilitation following the
release of the victim is particularly important to ensure that the victim does not slip back into sla-
very. Often, when victims are released from slavery or servitude they are impoverished, have little
or no education or vocational training outside their slave labour, may fear retaliation by the per-
petrator, and may be shunned or stigmatized by their families and communities. In each of these
circumstances, the victims may have little choice but to resume their slavery status as the only
means to survive.
143. In recent years, the need to provide reparations to individual victims of human rights abuses
has received increasing attention from the international community. In 1993, Theo van Boven, the
Sub-Commission’s Special Rapporteur on the right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation
for victims of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, concluded that slavery
and slavery-like practices are violations of human rights that give rise to a right of reparation for
victims.
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Van Boven’s report culminated in the drafting of a set of basic principles and guidelines
for reparations. According to these guidelines, States should provide reparations to victims of vio-
lations of human rights and humanitarian law,
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including restitution,
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compensation,
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reha-
bilitation,
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satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
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144. A number of treaties and other international instruments provide for reparation to victims
of human rights violations, albeit only in the specific context addressed by each instrument.
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Additionally, the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights has passed a number of resolutions calling on States to provide compensation and other
forms of reparation to victims of human rights abuses.
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The Sub-Commission addressed the topic
of reparations in several resolutions adopted in preparation for the World Conference against Rac-
ism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), held in Durban, South
Africa, in 2001.
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On 6 August 2001 the Sub-Commission adopted a resolution: 
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Report of the Working Group on Slavery on its ninth session, United Nations document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1983/
27 (1982), recommendations 3 and 13.
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Report of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery on its seventeenth session, United Nations
document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1992/34, p. 26.
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United Nations document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/8, para. 137(1).
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United Nations document E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/8, para.137. 
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Restitution must restore the victim to the original situation before the violations of international human rights
or humanitarian law occurred, United Nations document E/CN.4/2000/62, para. 22. 
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Compensation must cover any economically assessable damages resulting from violations of international hu-
man rights and humanitarian law, United Nations document E/CN.4/2000/62, para. 23. 
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Rehabilitation should include medical and psychological care, as well as legal and social services for the vic-
tim, United Nations document E/CN.4/2000/62, para. 24. 
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Satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition include actions that ensure closure to the victim as well as pre-
vention of the recurrence of such violations, United Nations document E/CN.4/2000/62, para. 25. 

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