FRANCAISAnti-Slavery International - History
1990-1999
-From 1990, United Kingdom: in November 1990, the Society takes the abridged name of Anti-Slavery International (ASI) so as to reinforce the visibility of an organisation which has suffered a decrease in its importance, with 3 employees and 1 143 members in 1988. A former official with Oxfam, Lesley Roberts, becomes the new director of the NGO in January 1990 and she aims to modernise it. Prior to her appointment, there was no financial plan, no budget, no staff contracts and no pension provision; minutes of the General Committee were designated as secrets. Before being succeeded in 1996 by Mike Dottridge, formerly with Amnesty International, Lesley Roberts improves the professionalism of the organisation, enlarges the staff to number some ten persons and registers 1,600 members.
-From 1992, Pakistan: a new law bans serfdom but is poorly enforced, notably in the Sindh. So ASI supports the efforts of its local partner, the HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan), towards the effective application of the existing legislation. The HRCP promotes a constructive relationship with the authorities and publishes in 1995 a report criticising the leader of the BLLF (Bonded Labour Liberation Front), Ehsan Ullah Khan, who accuses other NGOs of hypocritical behaviour and brings them into disrepute because of his exaggerated statements on bonded labour.
-1993-1998, United Kingdom: following the publication of its report on new forms of slavery in England, ASI supports the so-called Kalayaan campaign to forbid the confiscation of migrant domestic workers’ identity papers by their employers. Frightened of being deported, these immigrants do not go to the police to complain about bad treatment. To avoid such situations, the British Home Office awards them, from July 1998, an immigration status independent of their employers.
-1994-1997, United Kingdom: in its headquarters, ASI provides the secretariat of the End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (ECPAT) Campaign, launched in 1994. The lobby gets some results when the British law is changed in March 1997 to prosecute nationals for paedophilia abroad.
-1995, United Kingdom: ASI becomes a charitable limited guarantee company. For a long time, the organisation was an exception and enjoyed tax exemptions thanks to its seniority. Usually, the authorities refuse to give a charity status to human rights organisations, which are considered to be too political. Granted when the legislation was less strict, ASI’s charity status was temporarily questioned when the organisation changed its name in 1990.
-1997, Brazil: following an action by the federal authorities to buy a plantation from a private owner who maltreated his workers in Flor de Mata in the state of Pará, ASI advocates a complete confiscation of land where modern forms of slavery persist. Although the government isn’t in favour of such radical procedures, a law project aims, in December 1997, to modify the penal code and to forbid employers from retaining their employees by force or through the confiscation of their identity papers.
-1998, United Kingdom: eager to prevent illegal child labour in the third world sub-contractors of big western multinational companies, ASI becomes a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, which groups NGOs, trade unions and socially responsible firms. Similar efforts are made with the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, where a Convention bans the worst forms of child labour in 1999.
-1999, Philippines: with a local Foundation established in 1991, Visayan Forum, ASI campaigns for the adoption by Parliament of a charter named Batas Kasambahay to ban the exploitation of children domestic workers.
