22.    Supplementary Convention on the abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery,
Geneva, 7 September 1956

Objectives

Key Provisions

States Parties to the Convention agree to abandon debt bondage; serfdom; the exploitation of child labour; and practices whereby a woman may be given in marriage, without the right to refuse, on payment of a consideration in money or in kind, or may be transferred to another person by her husband, his family or clan, or may be inherited by another person on her husband’s death. To this end, States Parties undertake to prescribe minimum ages for marriage, to encourage the use of facilities whereby the consent of both parties to marriage may be freely expressed in the presence of a competent civil or religious authority, and to encourage the registration of marriages.

Obligations are imposed to make the act of conveying or attempting to convey slaves from one country to another; the act of mutilating, branding or otherwise marking a slave or a person of servile status; and the act of enslaving another person criminal offences under the law of the State Party and to make those convicted of such offences liable to punishment. The Convention also declares that any slave who takes refuge on a ship belonging to a State Party shall ipso facto be free.

States Parties agree to cooperate with each other and the United Nations to give effect to the Convention, and to communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations information on relevant laws, regulations and administrative measures enacted to implement the Convention.