BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF UN VOLUNTARY FUND ON CONTEMPORARY

 

FORMS OF SLAVERY CONCLUDES TENTH SESSION

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 14 March (UN Information Service) -- The Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery concluded its tenth session on Friday, 11 March.

During its one-week annual session, the Board considered 63 applications for project grants and 12 applications for travel grants.  It recommended funding 25 projects in 15 countries to extend humanitarian, legal and financial aid to individuals whose human rights have been violated as a result of contemporary forms of slavery.

The Board also recommended travel grants for seven persons to participate in the deliberations of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, to be held from 6 to 10 June 2005.  These beneficiaries will speak on contemporary forms of slavery in six different countries.  One of the seven will give first-hand testimony as a former victim of slavery.

The five Board members, who have been appointed by the Secretary-General, are:  José de Souza Martins (Brazil), Prateep Unsongtham Hata (Thailand), Cheikh Saad-Bouh Kamara (Mauritania), Gulnara Shahinian (Armenia), and David Weissbrodt (United States).  Mr. Kamara serves as Chairman.

The Fund was established by the General Assembly in its resolution 46/122 of 17 December 1991.

For further information, please contact the secretariat of the Fund at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, CH-1211 Geneva 10 – Switzerland, tel.:  +41 22 917 93 81/93 14, fax:  +41 22 917 90 66, e-mail:  slaveryfund@ohchr.org.

* *** *