Interactive Dialogue on the Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority communities
Statement by the Delegation of the United States of America
As Delivered by Ambassador Michèle Taylor
Human Rights Council – 51st Session
Geneva, September 15, 2022
Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
Special Rapporteur Obokata, thank you for highlighting the vulnerabilities of persons belonging to minority communities. We also appreciate your focus on the fact that slavery and human trafficking disproportionately affect women and girls in all their diversity.
The United States is committed to cooperating with governments, the private sector, and civil society to build a more effective strategy to tackle human trafficking at home and abroad.
Governments, including my own, must foster inclusion in order to address the systemic discrimination and racism that make justice systems inaccessible to trafficking victims who belong to minority and marginalized communities.
We must also work with civil society and the private sector to proactively identify victims and survivors and provide them with robust protection and services.
The international community must work together to combat all contemporary forms of slavery. The United States is particularly concerned about the appalling abuses documented in the High Commissioner’s recent independent report on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, including state-sponsored forced labor of Muslim Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minorities. We must hold accountable those states that violate or abuse the human rights of members of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority groups.
Mr. Special Rapporteur, how can governments facilitate the inclusion and participation of minority communities in efforts to eradicate contemporary forms of slavery?
I thank you.
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