[3] After British pressure, with support from the Grand Vizier and the Council of Ministers, Sultan Abdul Hamid II finally agreed to address the issue of the slave trade in the Red Sea.
[4] The British were given the right to stop and control all ships suspected of trafficking slaves on Ottoman waters[5] In practice, this prohibition was not enforced in the Hejaz Province.
In an Imperial firman (decree) of 1887, chattel slavery was declared formally abolished and no longer legally recognized, the decree stating: "The Imperial government not officially recognizing the state of slavery, considers by law every person living in the empire to be free".
After British pressure, Sultan Abdul Hamid II promulgated a law against the Black slave trade on 30 December 1889, the Kanunname of 1889.
Due to the 1889 law introduced prior to the Conference, the British confirmed that the Ottomans had lived up to the commitments of the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880.