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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
A GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST FORCED LABOUR2. Proposed action plan384. The first Global Report on forced labourcalled for a concerted programme of internationalaction against forced labour, identifying its eradicationas a common global responsibility. It was appropriatefor the ILO to take the lead, but an effectiveprogramme against contemporary forms of forced labourrequired a strong global commitment from severalorganizations within the United Nations systemand its specialized agencies, and from regional bodiesand development banks.385. This second Global Report issues much thesame challenge, but in a more focused way. We nowhave a better understanding of the numbers involved,and of the characteristics and gender and ethniccomposition of forced labour in different regions ofthe world. The main messages are quite straightforward.Face up to forced labour. Tackle the roots offorced labour, which are embedded in patterns ofdiscrimination, deprivation and poverty. Identifywhen labour market characteristics, including inadequateregulation and weak or non-existent labourinspection, are facilitating the growth of new formsof forced labour. Adopt clear legislation, enabling allconcerned employers’ and workers’ organizations aswell as the general public to understand the parametersof forced labour. Give law enforcement agentsthe capacity and resources to implement law andpolicies, and to identify, track down, prosecute andpunish offenders. Establish time-bound action programmes,with the involvement of labour ministries,employers’ and workers’ organizations, and other nationaland international partners. Give such timeboundprogrammes extensive publicity through localand national media. In this way, the world can makea real dent in forced labour over the next four years.We can realistically seek the eradication of all formsof forced labour by the year 2015, engaging otherparts of the international system and national governmentsin this effort.386. For the most part, the numbers of peopletrapped in forced labour situations are not so large asto make its eradication a distant dream. The Asianregion, with its manifold forms of forced labour,does represent a particular challenge to which thecorresponding priority must be accorded. Protectingindigenous peoples, vulnerable minorities and alsochildren against forced labour, in Latin America andelsewhere, can also call for comprehensive reformsof an economic, social and political nature. Povertyreduction programmes will have to take forced labourconcerns on board far more rigorously andcomprehensively than in the past. The eradicationof forced labour can make a truly significant contributionto the Millennium Development Goal ofhalving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.Elements of a global Action Plan:General issuesBasic goals and targets387. All concerned member States should havedevised, and put in place, time-bound action programmesfor the eradication of forced labour by theend of the 2005-08 four-year period to meet the goalof eliminating all forms of forced labour globallyby 2015.A global alliance against forced labour388. The time has now come, following the earliersuccess of action against child labour, to galvanizeconcerted action through the creation of global andlocal partnerships. An effective global alliance againstforced labour needs different components. These includealliances between employers’ and workers’ organizations,alliances with the academic and policycommunities and other civil society organizations,alliances with the United Nations system and withother international bodies, and alliances with bilateraland multilateral development agencies. The natureof such alliances will of course vary, dependingon the commitments which the various agencies andactors are best equipped to undertake. The OSCE’sAlliance Against Trafficking in Persons – with itscombination of technical meetings and high-profi lepolitical events with ministerial participation – couldprovide a useful model.389. Following discussion of this Report at the93rd Session of the International Labour Conferencein 2005, preliminary consultations will be held to enablethe different potential partners to identify theirparticular contribution to the global fight againstforced labour. To discuss the options and stimulatethe appropriate response, it is proposed to hold atILO headquarters a high-level international meetingto launch a concerted initiative against forced labourin 2006. The meeting would bring together the ILO’stripartite constituents with other major national andinternational actors and agencies with important rolesto play in combating forced labour. It would give particularattention to the role of international financialand development institutions concerned with povertyreduction, examining how a commitment to the eradicationof forced labour can help meet their targets ofpoverty reduction. This could be followed by regionalmeetings, to focus on the particular manifestations offorced labour in each region.82
Page 1 and 2:
A Global AllianceAgainst Forced Lab
Page 4 and 5:
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR-GENERALA glo
Page 6 and 7:
ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . .
Page 8 and 9:
Introduction1. Four years ago, the
Page 12 and 13:
PART IUnderstanding and measuringfo
Page 14 and 15:
UNDERSTANDING AND MEASURING FORCED
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22:
Page 25 and 26:
A GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST FORCED LA
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38: A GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST FORCED LA
Page 74 and 75: PART IIIGlobal actionto combat forc
Page 76 and 77: GLOBAL ACTION TO COMBAT FORCED LABO
Page 94: GLOBAL ACTION TO COMBAT FORCED LABO
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?