Over 40,000 campaign postcards signed by Irish citizens were todaydelivered to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson,to highlight the problem of slavery worldwide.
Campaign organisers, Trócaire, said: "While slavery is outlawedby some 300 international treaties, there are 27 million slaves inthe world today.
"This is more than twice the number of people taken from Africaduring the 400 year transatlantic slave trade."
Ms Robinson is in Dublin to address the National Women’s Council of Ireland annual conference tomorrow.
Ms Robinson - who has spoken out on the issue before - is being urged by campaigners to make the abolition of slavery a priority for theoffice of UN High Commissioner.
Trócaire is calling on Ms Robinson to work with the InternationalLabour Organisation (ILO) and other sectors of the UN to put inplace "special measures to eliminate the use of bonded labourworldwide."
At last month’s ILO conference in Geneva, the Government, along witha number of other countries, successfully lobbied for the adoption ofa four-year international anti-slavery plan of action.
