PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
175th ANNIVERSARY OF ANTI-SLAVERY INTERNATIONAL (1 April 2014)

That this House notes that 17 April 2014 marks the 175th anniversary of Thomas Clarkson and fellow abolitionists founding the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society; recognises that Anti-Slavery International is now the world's oldest international human rights organisation; acknowledges its historic contribution to so many major human rights milestones in the form of national actions and legislation, international treaties, or conventions and corporate standards; appreciates its ongoing work to expose and oppose all the modern facets of forced labour, human trafficking, controlled servitude, sexual exploitation, indentured poverty, child exploitation and other slavery-related abuses; further recognises the other courageous activists across the world who work with Anti-Slavery to expose slavery wherever it occurs and work for sustainable measures to eradicate it; and salutes Anti-Slavery International as a vital organisation for our times, bringing long historical and broad geographic perspective to the contemporary struggle to secure justice and rights for the 21 million people still bonded in slavery across the world in 2014.

Sponsored by:
Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party)