International Slave Eradication Day (02 December) History, Significance, Theme and Observation

International Slave Eradication Day Quick Facts

International Slave Eradication Day Brief

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed every year on 02 December. The main objective of celebrating this day is to end slavery all over the world. Slavery has been prevalent in most countries of the world since ancient times.

The United Nations has declared December 2 to be the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The day is celebrated on 2 December every year since the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to stop human trafficking and prostitution.

International Slave Eradication Day History

On 2 December 1949, a resolution was passed in the United Nations General Assembly, under which the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery was adopted. The main objective in this was to stop human trafficking and stop prostitution. Resolution 317 (IV) was passed considering both as symbols of slavery.

International Slave Eradication Day Objective

The purpose of celebrating this day is to focus on meaningful efforts to eradicate all forms of slavery, such as human trafficking, sexual exploitation, the worst form of child labor, forced marriage and the issue of forced recruitment of children into the military during armed conflict.

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Abolition of Slavery

In the 18th century, an environment for the abolition of slavery was beginning to form in the West. One of the main slogans of the American War of Independence was the freedom of man, and consequently the French Revolution, which had a strong allegiance to human fundamental rights, by 1804 in creating an anti-slavery environment in the northern states of the United States, is of greater importance. The anti-slavery movement began to prevail in all the countries of the American continents.

As opposition to slavery became stronger in the liberal north of the United States, the more harsh the slave states of the reactionary south, the tension grew to such an extent that a civil war broke out between the northern and southern states. In this war, the anti-slavery unitary northern states led by Abraham Lincoln were victorious. According to the Act of 1888, the Portuguese Empire of Brazil standing on slavery in the United States collapsed. Gradually, slavery began to be abolished from all the countries of the American continents.

In 1890 the 18-country convention in Brussels declared the maritime trade of Habsh slaves illegal. In the 1919 Saint Germain Conference and the 1926 Conference held under the auspices of the League of Nations, all major countries signed a resolution on the complete abolition of all forms of slavery and slave trade. Slavery was abolished in the British Occupied Territories in 1833.

In other countries it ended legally in these years - India 1846, Sweden 1859, Brazil 1871, African Protectorate 1897, 1901, Philippine 1902, Abyssinia 1921. In this way, in the 20th century, almost all the nations took steps to eradicate slavery considering it as an inhuman and immoral institution.

Slavery in India:

Poverty-stricken people in South Asia especially India, Pakistan and Nepal were forced to become slaves. Slavery continues in India in the form of bonded labour. Although the government had banned the bonded labor system in the year 1975 through an ordinance of the President, but despite this this trend continues even today.

According to the annual report of the Ministry of Labor and Employment of India, two lakh 86 thousand 612 bonded laborers were identified and freed from 19 states in the country. Out of 28 thousand 385 in Uttar Pradesh, only 58 bonded laborers were rehabilitated.

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