A/HRC/27/53 I. Introduction 1. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, was established by the Human Rights Council at its sixth session, in 2007, in resolution 6/14. It was renewed by the Council in resolution 15/2 and more recently, on 26 September 2013, in resolution 24/3 for an additional period of three years. 2. In May 2014, the Human Rights Council appointed Urmila Bhoola from South Africa as the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; she assumed her mandate on 2 June 2014. The Special Rapporteur gratefully acknowledges the trust that has been placed in her by the Human Rights Council in appointing her as mandate holder. She also thanks the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and its staff for their continuing support and assistance. 3. Given the short time between the appointment of the Special Rapporteur and the report submission deadline, the present report contains her preliminary reflections on her priorities for the first term of her mandate. 4. The present report also contains a review of the activities of the previous mandate holder, Gulnara Shahinian, from the time of the submission of her report to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-fourth session until the completion of her tenure. During that period, the mandate holder undertook an official mission to Ghana and two follow-up missions to Mauritania and Kazakhstan. 5. The report on the Special Rapporteur’s follow-up mission to Mauritania from 24 to 27 February 2014 is contained in Addendum 1 to the present report and the report of the follow-up mission to Kazakhstan from 25 to 27 March 2014 is contained in Addendum 2. 6. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express her deep appreciation and admiration to her predecessor for her important work in combating slavery and slavery-like practices during her two terms as mandate holder. Through her thematic work, for example on forced labour, bonded labour and child labour, domestic servitude and servile marriages, she contributed greatly to promoting anti-slavery action and law and significantly enhanced the understanding of the United Nations and the international community of contemporary forms of slavery by identifying challenges as well as good practices. Through her countryspecific work and 12 official country visits, she not only provided valuable analysis and insight into country situations and drew attention to the concerns and issues of slavery and slavery-like practices therein, but also made constructive and action-oriented recommendations. II. Activities of the mandate 7. The six-year tenure of the previous mandate holder, Gulnara Shahinian, ended on 1 June 2014. During the reporting period, she continued her work towards the eradication of contemporary forms of slavery through a range of activities. 8. On 13 September 2013, during the twenty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council, the previous Special Rapporteur participated, as a panellist, in a side event, “Challenges and lessons learned in combating contemporary forms of slavery”, which she had organized jointly with the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. At that side event, she gave a speech entitled “Key challenges and recommendations in combating contemporary forms of slavery”. On 3