Rehabilitation for victims of modern slavery: Expert Panel on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2017

Each year the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery invites the international community to mark the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. 

On 1 December 2017, we held a webinar on the topic of rehabilitation, bringing together practitioners and professionals who provide assistance to survivors of slavery in different regions of the world. 

The panel discussion:

• Raised awareness of the suffering and violation of human dignity that continues to be perpetuated through modern-day slavery;
• Emphasized the critical need for rehabilitation for victims, whose recovery is essential to breaking the cycle of inequality and eradicating slavery and slave-like practices;
• Shared the concrete experiences of grantees of the UN Slavery Fund, highlighting the vital role that rehabilitation and empowerment have had for victims around the world. Voices of former victims of slavery were put forward to convey the seriousness of modern-day in particular its dehumanizing impact on victims;
• Called for action. Given the scale and range of modern-day slavery, cooperation and coordination at the international level is crucial to combatting these horrendous practices.

The Expert Panel was followed by an interactive question and answer session.

Related materials

• Concept note of the Panel​  (PDF)
• Biographies (PDF)
• Poster (PDF)
• Interview of our panellists by UN Radio (Spanish)