A/HRC/9/20 page 6 report by Benjamin Whitaker, Special Rapporteur of the then Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, slavery was defined as “any form of dealing with human beings leading to the forced exploitation of their labour”.2 In addition, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (A/CONF.183/9), in its article 7 (2) (c), defines “enslavement” as “the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person … and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children”. 9. Second, Kevin Bales, an expert on slavery, defines it as “a state marked by the loss of free will where a person is forced through violence or the threat of violence to give up the ability to sell freely his or her own labour power”. In this definition, slavery has three key dimensions: control by another person, the appropriation of labour power, and the use or threat of violence.3 10. Third, the status of a slave has been defined as a “social death”. The enslaved person effectively loses any cultural, social and personal history and future, and the slave status is created or socialized only in relationship to the slaveholder.4 II. SCOPE OF THE MANDATE 11. As one of the oldest forms of human relationship, slavery has evolved and manifested itself in different ways throughout history. Today some old traditional forms of slavery still persist in their earlier forms, others transmute into new ones. Analysis of worldwide annual applications to the United Nations Trust Fund on Slavery, reports of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, as well as reports written by United Nations bodies and non-governmental organizations, document the persistence of the old forms of slavery that are embedded in traditional beliefs and customs. These forms of slavery are a result of long-standing discrimination against the most vulnerable groups in societies such as: those regarded as being of low caste, tribal minorities and indigenous peoples. A. Forced labour 12. Research at the International Labour Organization shows that forced labour is a global issue to which no country is immune.5 Time and realities may have changed but the core essence of slavery has persisted. Alongside traditional forms of forced labour such as bonded labour and 2 E/CN.4/Sub.2/1982/20/Add.1, of 7 July 1982. 3 Kevin Bales and Peter T. Robbins, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude: a critical analysis of international slavery agreements and concepts of slavery”, Human Rights Review, 2001. 4 Orlando Patterson, Slavery and social death: a comparative study (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1982). 5 See International Labour Organization, ILO Minimum Estimate of Forced Labour in the World, by Patrick Belser, Michaelle de Cock and Farhad Mehran, 2005.