2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) and criminalisation. This is despite the fact that all states have obligations to prohibit slavery under customary international law, and the vast majority have undertaken treaty commitments to prohibit the various practices under consideration. 2000 Palermo Protocol 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1957 Abolition of Forced Labour Convention 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery 1930 Forced Labour Convention 1926 Slavery Convention 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 Figure 1. Number of UN member states (n = 193) party to the core international instruments addressing human exploitation. 15 Globally, almost all UN member states have ratified at least one of the core international instruments addressing human exploitation (see Figure 1). Overall, only 3 states (2%) do not have specific treaty obligations to prohibit any one of these practices (Bhutan, Tonga and Tuvalu), while 113 states (59%) are required to prohibit all five. 16 Several of these core instruments address multiple forms of exploitation. The above ratifications therefore translate to 96% of states having obligations to prohibit forced labour, 95% with treaty-based obligations to prohibit slavery, 91% with obligations regarding trafficking in persons, 89% for servitude and 64% for institutions and practices similar to slavery. 17 Despite near universal commitment to treaties requiring the criminalisation of human exploitation in its various forms, many states have yet to enact domestic legislation creating such offences. Of all 193 UN member states, 99 (51%) have enacted criminal legislation prohibiting slavery or the slave trade, 13 (7%) have enacted legislative provisions concerning servitude, 23 (12%) have criminalised the institutions and practices similar to slavery and 81 (42%) have penal provisions in place for the punishment of forced labour (see Figure 2). 18 With respect to each of these practices, a significant implementation gap between international commitment and domestic legislation is evident. The prohibition of trafficking in persons has experienced a more complete translation from international to domestic law, with 185 states (96%) having created domestic criminal offences of trafficking. 19 However, this translation is far from perfect. Many states’ trafficking 15 16 17 18 19 Palermo Protocol (n 13); ICCPR (n 9); Convention (No 105) Concerning the Abolition of Forced Labour, opened for signature 25 June 1957, 320 UNTS 291 (entered into force 17 January 1959) (‘1957 Abolition of Forced Labour Convention’); 1956 Supplementary Convention (n 9); 1930 Forced Labour Convention (n 9); 1926 Slavery Convention (n 3). Schwarz and Allain (n 6) 8. ibid 9. ibid 11. ibid. 162