International Day for the Abolition of Slavery

The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed every year on 2nd December, first observed in 1986.

The yearly event was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly for eradicating the worst forms of child labour, recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, human trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced marriage.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has reported that more than 40 million people around the world are victims of modern slavery, out of which around 25 million are in forced labour and around 15 million in forced marriage. ILO also reported that almost one in ten children are subject to child labour around the world.

The measure took by ILO:

To strengthen global efforts for eliminating forced labour, ILO has adopted a new legally binding protocol named ’50 for freedom campaign’ that came into force on November 2016. The campaign aims to persuade 50 countries to ratify the forced labour Protocol by the end of 2019 before it enters into force as an international treaty.