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Signed | 25 September 1926 |
---|---|
Location | Geneva |
Effective | 9 March 1927 |
Condition | Fulfilled |
Parties | 99 as of 2013 (Convention and subsequent Protocol) |
Depositary | Secretary-General of the League of Nations |
Languages | English and French |
The 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is an international treaty created under the auspices of the League of Nations and first signed on 25 September 1926. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 9 March 1927, the same day it went into effect. The objective of the convention is to confirm and advance the suppression of slavery and the slave trade and was extended in 1956 with the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, under the auspices of the United Nations.
Background
In the Brussels Conference Act of 1890, the signatories "declared that they were equally animated by the firm intention of putting an end to the traffic in African slaves". It was supplemented and revised by the Convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed by the Allied Powers of the First World War on 10 September 1919, in which the signatories undertook to "endeavour to secure the complete suppression of slavery in all its forms and of the slave trade by land and sea" (Article 11).
The Red Sea slave trade and slavery in the Arabian Peninsula, and particular the slave trade in Hejaz, attracted attention by the League of Nations and contributed to the creation of the later 1926 Slavery Convention, obliging the British to combat the slave trade in the area.
The Temporary Slavery Commission (TSC) was appointed by the Council of the League of Nations in June 1924. The commission was mixed in composition including former colonial governors such as Frederick Lugard, as well as a representative from Haiti, and a representative from the International Labour Organization. The TSC filed their report on 1925 with the recommendation to outlaw the institution of legal cattle slavery and slave trade, which resulted in the 1926 Slavery Convention. In 1932 the Committe of Experts on Slavery was established to investigate the efficiency of the 1926 Slavery Convention, which in turn resulted in the establishment of the permanent Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery.
Significance
The convention established concrete rules and articles to advance the suppression of slavery and the slave trade.
Slavery was defined in Article 1 as
the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised
The slave trade was defined as including
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 or exchange of a slave acquired with a view to being sold or exchanged, and, in general, every act of trade or transport in slaves.
Selected articles
Article 2
The parties agreed to prevent and suppress the slave trade and to progressively bring about the complete elimination of slavery in all its forms.
Article 6
The parties undertook to promulgate severe penalties for slave trading, slaveholding, and enslavement.
Participants
As of 2013, there are 99 countries that have signed, acceded to, ratified, succeeded to, or otherwise committed to participation in the conventions as amended, and its subsequent protocol. The countries and the year of their first commitment to participation are as follows:
Afghanistan (1954), Albania (1957), Algeria (1963), Australia (1953), Austria (1954), Azerbaijan (1996), Bahamas (1976), Bahrain (1990), Bangladesh (1985), Barbados (1976), Belarus (1956, as the Byelorussian SSR), Belgium (1962), Bolivia (1983), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1993), Brazil (1966), Cameroon (1984), Canada (1953), Chile (1995), China (1955), Croatia (1992), Cuba (1954), Cyprus (1986), Denmark (1954), Dominica (1994), Ecuador (1955), Egypt (1954), Ethiopia (1969), Fiji (1972), Finland (1954), France (1963), Germany (1973), Greece (1955), Guatemala (1983), Guinea (1963), Hungary (1958), India (1954), Iraq (1955), Ireland (1961), Israel (1955), Italy (1954), Jamaica (1964), Jordan (1959), Kazakhstan (2008), Kuwait (1963), Kyrgyzstan (1997), Lesotho (1974), Liberia (1953), Libya (1957), Madagascar (1964), Malawi (1965), Mali (1973), Malta (1966), Mauritania (1986), Mauritius (1969), Mexico (1954), Monaco (1954), Mongolia (1968), Montenegro (2006), Morocco (1959), Myanmar (1957), Nepal (1963), Netherlands (1955), New Zealand (1953), Nicaragua (1986), Niger (1964), Nigeria (1961), Norway (1957), Pakistan (1955), Paraguay (2007), Papua New Guinea (1982), Philippines (1955), Romania (1957), Russia (1956) (as the Soviet Union), St Lucia (1990), St Vincent and the Grenadines (1981), Saudi Arabia (1973), Serbia (2001, as Serbia and Montenegro), Sierra Leone (1962), Solomon Islands (1981), South Africa (1953), Spain (1927), Sri Lanka (1958), Sudan (1957), Sweden (1954), Switzerland (1953), Syria (1954), Tanzania (1962), Trinidad and Tobago (1966), Tunisia (1966), Turkey (1955), Turkmenistan (1997), Uganda (1964), Ukraine (1959, as the Ukrainian SSR), United Kingdom (1953), United States (1956), Uruguay (2001), Viet Nam (1956), Yemen (1987), Zambia (1973)
Updates
The convention was amended by the protocol entering into force on 7 July 1955.
The definition of slavery was further refined and extended by a 1956 Supplementary Convention.
See also
- Abolitionism
- OHCHR – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
- Slave Trade Acts
- Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery of 1956
- International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic
References
- Signatories and parties
- League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 60, pp. 254–270.
- United States of America – Convention revising the General Act of Berlin, 26 February 1885, and of the General Act and the Declaration of Brussels, 2 July 1890, signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 10 September 1919 (1922) LNTSer 19; 8 LNTS 27
- Suzanne Miers: Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem
- Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. USA: AltaMira Press. 120-121
- Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. USA: AltaMira Press. 197-215
- Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 216
- Protocol amending the Slavery Convention signed at Geneva on 25 September 1926
External links
- Text of the Convention at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Text of the 'Slavery, Servitude, Forced Labour and Similar Institutions and Practices Convention of 1926' at the UMN Human Rights Library
- Signatories and parties Archived 15 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- League of Nations treaties
- Treaties concluded in 1926
- Treaties entered into force in 1927
- Anti-slavery treaties
- Treaties of the Kingdom of Afghanistan
- Treaties of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania
- Treaties of Algeria
- Treaties of Australia
- Treaties of Austria
- Treaties of Azerbaijan
- Treaties of the Bahamas
- Treaties of Bahrain
- Treaties of Bangladesh
- Treaties of Barbados
- Treaties of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Treaties of Belgium
- Treaties of Bolivia
- Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Treaties of the military dictatorship in Brazil
- Treaties of Cameroon
- Treaties of Canada
- Treaties of Chile
- Treaties of Croatia
- Treaties of Cuba
- Treaties of Cyprus
- Treaties of Denmark
- Treaties of Dominica
- Treaties of Ecuador
- Treaties of the Republic of Egypt (1953–1958)
- Treaties of the Ethiopian Empire
- Treaties of Fiji
- Treaties of Finland
- Treaties of France
- Treaties of West Germany
- Treaties of the Kingdom of Greece
- Treaties of Guatemala
- Treaties of Guinea
- Treaties of the Hungarian People's Republic
- Treaties of India
- Treaties of the Kingdom of Iraq
- Treaties of Ireland
- Treaties of Israel
- Treaties of Italy
- Treaties of Jamaica
- Treaties of Jordan
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- Treaties of Kyrgyzstan
- Treaties of Lesotho
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- Treaties of the Kingdom of Libya
- Treaties of Madagascar
- Treaties of Malawi
- Treaties of Mali
- Treaties of Malta
- Treaties of Mauritania
- Treaties of Mauritius
- Treaties of Mexico
- Treaties of Monaco
- Treaties of the Mongolian People's Republic
- Treaties of Morocco
- Treaties of Myanmar
- Treaties of Nepal
- Treaties of the Netherlands
- Treaties of New Zealand
- Treaties of Nicaragua
- Treaties of Niger
- Treaties of Nigeria
- Treaties of Norway
- Treaties of the Dominion of Pakistan
- Treaties of Papua New Guinea
- Treaties of the Philippines
- Treaties of the Socialist Republic of Romania
- Treaties of the Soviet Union
- Treaties of Saint Lucia
- Treaties of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Treaties of Saudi Arabia
- Treaties of Sierra Leone
- Treaties of the Solomon Islands
- Treaties of the Union of South Africa
- Treaties of Spain under the Restoration
- Treaties of the Dominion of Ceylon
- Treaties of the Republic of the Sudan (1956–1969)
- Treaties of Sweden
- Treaties of Switzerland
- Treaties of the Syrian Republic (1930–1963)
- Treaties of the Republic of China (1949–1971)
- Treaties of Trinidad and Tobago
- Treaties of Tunisia
- Treaties of Turkey
- Treaties of Turkmenistan
- Treaties of Uganda
- Treaties of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Treaties of the United Kingdom
- Treaties of Tanzania
- Treaties of the United States
- Treaties of Uruguay
- Treaties of Vietnam
- Treaties of Serbia and Montenegro
- Treaties of Zambia
- Treaties of East Germany
- Treaties of Kazakhstan
- Treaties of Montenegro
- Treaties of Yugoslavia
- Treaties of Paraguay
- 1926 in Switzerland
- Treaties extended to the Faroe Islands
- Treaties extended to Greenland
- Treaties extended to Hong Kong
- Treaties extended to South West Africa
- Treaties extended to British Burma
- Treaties extended to Curaçao and Dependencies
- Treaties extended to the Dutch East Indies
- Treaties extended to Surinam (Dutch colony)
- Treaties extended to Spanish Guinea
- Treaties extended to Spanish Sahara
- Treaties extended to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
- 20th century in Geneva
- September 1926 events