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

Introduction1. Four years ago, the first Global Report on forcedlabour drew attention to the gravity of the problemsof forced labour in the modern world, with “ugly newfaces” such as human trafficking emerging alongsidethe older forms. 1 Since then the ILO has sought tomobilize world opinion behind the goal of a fairglobalization, in which people come first, with fullrespect for the core labour standards embodied inthe ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles andRights at Work adopted in 1998. Tackling forced labourhead-on is one very practical way of contributingto achievement of this global goal.2. On the basic characteristics of contemporaryforced labour, much has been learned over the period.Importantly, the ILO is now less alone in calling attentionto new forms of forced labour and slavery-likepractices. There are encouraging signs of commitment,by ILO member States, employers’ and workers’organizations, and the international community, toaddressing the problems. Important developmentshave included the first national action plans againstforced and bonded labour, for example in Brazil andPakistan. There has been growing commitment tothe adoption of new laws or policies on the subject,for example in some east Asian transition economies.There are several regional action plans or declarationsagainst human trafficking, which increasinglyrecognize its forced labour and child labour dimensions.And following the recent entry into force of theUnited Nations Convention against TransnationalOrganized Crime, together with its Protocol toPrevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,Especially Women and Children (the TraffickingProtocol, also known as the Palermo Protocol), anumber of States have now begun to adopt new legislationor amend their criminal law in order to addressthe forced labour dimensions of trafficking.3. These are all significant developments. Andyet, in terms of real knowledge and awareness ofmodern forced labour, we seem still to see only thetip of a disturbing iceberg. The warning signalssounded four years ago seem to be even more justifiedtoday. Forced labour is present in some form onall continents, in almost all countries, and in everykind of economy. There are persistent cases of whatmay be termed “traditional” forms of forced labour.These include deeply entrenched bonded laboursystems in parts of South Asia, debt bondage affectingmainly indigenous peoples in parts of LatinAmerica, and the residual slavery-related practicesmost evident today in West Africa. There are alsovarious forms of forced labour exacted by the Statefor either economic or political purposes. Forced labourtoday also affects sizeable numbers of migrantworkers who are transported away from their countriesor communities of origin.4. Older forms of coercion and compulsion aretransmuting into newer ones. The bonded laboursystems of South Asia remain very much in evidencetoday, and account for the greatest numberof forced labourers in the contemporary world. Butthese systems have changed over the past three orfour decades. They now pervade different sectorsof the informal economy, as well as the agriculturalsector, where the lion’s share of bonded labour wasformerly to be found. Trafficking in human beingshas also taken on new forms and dimensions, linkedto recent developments in technology, transportationand trans national organized crime.5. Forced labour is an emotive subject, and governmentsare sometimes reluctant to probe into andrecognize its existence within their national borders.It is far from easy to generate and sustain the politicalwill to instigate the detailed investigations needed to1. ILO: Stopping forced labour, Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work,Report I(B), International Labour Conference, 89th Session, Geneva, 2001, p. 1.1