About the databases

Antislavery in Domestic Legislation

To assess the extent to which slavery and related forms of human exploitation have been prohibited in domestic law, the Antislavery in Domestic Legislation project compiles the constitutional, criminal, and labour legislation of all 193 UN Member States, drawing provisions dealing with the following forms of exploitation from these texts:

From over 700 domestic statutes, more than four thousand individual provisions have been extracted and analysed to establish the extent to which each and every State has prohibited these practices through domestic legislation.

Within the Antislavery Legislation Database, these provisions have been collated with a global mapping of States’ commitments to relevant international instruments, to assist States in meeting their international obligations with regard to slavery and related forms of exploitation. Core international obligations to prohibit, and the definitions of these practices, are drawn from five core international instruments:

Forced Marriage in Domestic Legislation

To assess the extent to which forced marriage and related concerns have been addressed in domestic law, the Forced Marriage in Domestic Legislation database compiles the constitutional, criminal, labour, civil, and family law of all 193 UN Member States, drawing provisions related to the following practices and concerns from these texts:

From over 550 domestic statutes, over 1,500 individual legislative provisions have been extracted and analysed to establish the extent to which each and every State has addressed these practices through national-level domestic legislation.

Within the Forced Marriage in Domestic Legislation database, legislative provisions are collated with a global mapping of States’ commitments to relevant international instruments. This allows for consideration of States’ international obligations with regard to forced marriage and related concerns, and the extent to which these have been realised through national law. The database also incorporates a range of additional instruments for analysis, including universal and regional human rights, women’s rights, and children’s rights treaties.

Research briefings and recommendations for use