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

GLOBAL ACTION TO COMBAT FORCED LABOURresearch on forced labour must always be handledcautiously. Governments and social partners thatshow courage in tackling these difficult issues mustbe given due recognition for this, and receive assistancefrom the international community to help themovercome any forced labour problems that come tolight, rather than being subjected to criticism.377. The social partners have key roles to play, forexample by raising awareness of forced labour throughtheir wide-reaching networks of membership-basedorganizations. Employers’ organizations can contributeto the monitoring of recruitment agencies forthe prevention of forced labour and trafficking; andworkers’ organizations can reach out to workers inthe informal economy where forced labour practicesprevail. Regarding trafficking, trade union organizationsin the transportation sector, for example, offerparticular strengths, as well as those in the key sectorshiring irregular migrants and trafficked victims. Thecapacity of employers’ and workers’ organizations tofulfil these roles needs to be further enhanced.378. Knowledge sharing is a key aspect of antitraffickingand other work against forced labour.Good practices must be documented on a systematicbasis. Study tours and international meetings haveproved useful for cross-fertilization of experience.Information on forced labour and tools to combatit must be made available in local languages. Andwhere so many international agencies are involved inaccordance with their individual mandates, there isa need to establish an inter-agency learning environmentwhere information on effective strategies can bewidely shared.379. In all community-based prevention and rehabilitationprogrammes, the active participationof local people in design and implementation helpsensure that interventions are really relevant to theirneeds and priorities. Strategies need to go beyond thesymptoms of forced labour to address its root causes,including entrenched social and gender discrimination,poverty, illiteracy and landlessness, labourmarket failures, and poor people’s exclusion from equitablefinancial services and social protection. Socialempowerment of actual and potential victims is fundamentalto any strategy to eliminate forced labour.380. A uniform approach to all manifestations offorced and bonded labour is not appropriate. The interestsof the victims must always come fi rst. Victimsof severe exploitation need urgent release and rehabilitation,and their exploiters must be prosecuted. Lawenforcement must be strengthened so as to providecredible sanctions for the use of bonded labour anda credible means of recourse for its victims. But therelease of bonded labourers, without sufficient accompanyingsupport, risks making them worse off.Comprehensive rehabilitation plans (including psychologicalrehabilitation), established together withthe beneficiaries, must first be in place and then beimplemented effectively and immediately.381. Short-term forms of bonded labour (for example,involving cash advances that are repayablein a reasonable time-frame), as well as preventionprogrammes, may call rather for an integrated setof social and economic empowerment measures.These can uplift people to the point where they canbene fit from mainstream poverty reduction schemes.Targeting women in project interventions, particularlyin the South Asian context, is necessary but notsufficient; it is increasingly evident that men too mustbe involved. Only then can gender equality issues beeffectively addressed in the broader household andcommunity context. Similar experiences gained fromIPEC’s activities against child trafficking, in differentregions, have also shown the importance of such agender-based approach.382. Important lessons are emerging too about therole of microfinance in combating bonded labour. Forexample, microfinance is proving itself as a valuablepart of an integrated prevention strategy, but is lessappropriate for people already trapped in bondage, astheir employers would likely siphon off the benefits.Curtailing the demand for bonded labour amongstits users, then, must go hand in hand with efforts toempower workers against being exploited. Employersof bonded labour can be constructively engaged inefforts to curb the practice, by devising alternativecontractual arrangements and more productive workplacesand technologies.383. Forced labour is often rooted in long-standingproblems of poverty, inequality and discrimination.Time is needed to overcome these problems. Projectsby themselves cannot eliminate forced labour orachieve results overnight. A real impact on a significantscale is possible only when national and internationalpartners replicate project approaches andactivities more widely. Most importantly, the ILO’sexperience in combating forced labour at communitylevel attests, once again, to the capacity of people inpoverty, when given the opportunity, to fight backagainst the injustices and difficulties they confrontin their daily lives. Forced labour victims across theworld demonstrate their resilience to withstand theindignities to which they have been subjected andtheir ability to look to a better future. Many have reemergedto build new lives for themselves and theirfamilies. Herein lies the strongest hope that forcedlabour can and will be eliminated. With concerted effortsby a wide range of partners at national and internationallevels to support such people, real and rapidprogress can be made in eliminating forced labour.81