I-Newswire.com (press release)
March 14 2005

The Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on
Contemporary Forms of Slavery concluded its tenth session on Friday,
11 March.

i-Newswire, 2005-03-14 – 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.

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