A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour - International Labour ...

PART IUnderstanding and measuringforced labour today1. Forced labour: Definitions and concepts11. Since the last Global Report on the subject,there has been greater realization that forced labourin its different forms can pervade all societies,whether in developing or industrialized countries,and is by no means limited to a few pockets aroundthe globe. Yet the very concept of forced labour, asset out in the ILO standards on the subject, is stillnot well understood. In many quarters the term continuesto be associated mainly with the forced labourpractices of totalitarian regimes: the flagrant abusesof Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union or Pol Pot’sCambodia. At the other end of the spectrum, suchterms as “modern slavery”, “slavery-like practices” and“forced labour” can be used rather loosely to refer topoor and insalubrious working conditions, includingvery low wages. Indeed, some national legislation hasidentified the late payment of wages, or remunerationbelow the legal minimum wage, as at least one elementof a forced labour situation.Defining characteristics of forced labour12. In its original Convention on the subject, theForced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), the ILOdefines forced labour for the purposes of internationallaw as “all work or service which is exacted from anyperson under the menace of any penalty and for whichthe said person has not offered himself voluntarily”(Article 2(1)). 1 The other fundamental ILO instrument,the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention,1957 (No. 105), specifies that forced labour can neverbe used for the purpose of economic development oras a means of political education, discrimination,labour discipline, or punishment for having participatedin strikes (Article 1). This Convention clarifiescertain purposes for which forced labour can neverbe imposed, but does not alter the basic definition ininternational law.13. Forced labour cannot be equated simply withlow wages or poor working conditions. Nor does itcover situations of pure economic necessity, as when aworker feels unable to leave a job because of the real orperceived absence of employment alternatives. Forcedlabour represents a severe violation of human rightsand restriction of human freedom, as defined in theILO Conventions on the subject and in other relatedinternational instruments on slavery, practices similarto slavery, debt bondage or serfdom.14. The ILO’s definition of forced labour comprisestwo basic elements: the work or service is exactedunder the menace of a penalty and it is undertaken involuntarily.The work of the ILO supervisory bodiesover some 75 years has served to clarify both of theseelements. The penalty does not need to be in the formof penal sanctions, but may also take the form of aloss of rights and privileges. Moreover, the menace ofa penalty can take multiple different forms. Arguably,its most extreme form involves physical violence or restraint,or even death threats addressed to the victimor relatives. There can also be subtler forms of menace,sometimes of a psychological nature. Situations examinedby the ILO have included threats to denouncevictims to the police or immigration authorities whentheir employment status is illegal, or denunciation tovillage elders in the case of girls forced to prostitutethemselves in distant cities. Other penalties can beof a financial nature, including economic penaltieslinked to debts, the non-payment of wages, or theloss of wages accompanied by threats of dismissal ifworkers refuse to do overtime beyond the scope of1. The Convention provides for certain exceptions, in particular with regard to military service for work of purely military character, normalcivic obligations, work of prisoners convicted in a court of law and working under the control of a public authority, work in emergency casessuch as wars or calamities, and minor communal services (Article 2(2)).5