The Slavery Commission

The Temporary Slave Commission's investigation yielded

significant results which ultimately led to the creation of the
League of Nations Slavery Convention in 1926. This historic
agreement served to outlaw the heinous practice of slavery and
the slave trade and required participating nations to take concrete
steps towards ending these reprehensible practices within their
own borders. The Convention thus represented a major step
forward in the global struggle for basic human rights and dignity
SLAVERY COMMISSION
and continues to serve as a powerful reminder of the need for
ongoing vigilance and action in the face of systemic injustice.
 THE COMMISSION ITSELF :
The principal objective of the Slavery Commission was to stamp out slavery and slave dealing together with
exploitative practices such as forcing young women and children into prostitution ---- “white slaves” traffic. Its
methods were those of persistent enquiry, publication of reports, and the constant coaxing of the government
that appeared slow or evasive in taking effective action. Success included the freeing of 20,00,000 Slaves in
Sierra Leone and the reduction of the death rate for African workers engaged on the Tanganyikan railway from
50 per cent. A number of countries abolished slavery altogether such as Iraq, Jordan, and Nepal. Yet the success
was far from universal and the continued existence of slave trading was acknowledged in the commission’s
report for 1937 while the “ white slaves” traffic remains a serious social problem, even in advanced countries,
in the twenty-first century .

20XX Slavery commission 3

The 1926 Slavery Convention was an agreement among member states of the League of Nations that
obliged signatories to eliminate slavery, the slave trade, and forced labour in their territories. It defined
slavery as the status or condition of a person over which the powers of ownership are applied; the slave
trade as acts involving the capture, selling, or transport of enslaved people; and forced labour as a
"condition analogous to slavery" that had to be regulated and eventually stopped. The Slavery
Convention was the work of the Temporary Slave Commission, established by the League in 1924,
which determined that slavery was widespread in many parts of the world and that its elimination could
be aided by an international convention the provisions of which would be binding upon League
member states. The convention required signatories to intercept slave traffic in their territorial waters
and on ships flying their flag, assist other states in anti-slavery efforts, and enact national anti-slavery
laws and enforcement mechanisms. However, Article 9 of the convention allowed each signatory to
exempt certain of its territories from all or parts of the convention. Britain invoked this exemption for
Burma and British India. The convention was signed on September 25, 1926, and came into force on
March 9, 1927. The original text, with signatures and claimed exemptions, is shown here. It is held in the
archives of the League, which were transferred to the United Nations in 1946 and are housed at the UN
office in Geneva. The archives were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2010.

20XX presentation title 4

THANK YOU FOR
LISTING