Slavery in The 21st Century

14 Abolishing Slavery
vices “being performed by the members of the community in the direct interest of the said
community”. 54
3. Other relevant human rights instruments
44. The ILO forced labour conventions are essentially the only international instruments that set
out a definition of forced labour, although its prohibition is endorsed by many treaties, both international
and regional. The International Bill of Human Rights contains various provisions relevant
to forced labour. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration does not specifically refer to forced labour
but it is clear from discussions at the time it was drafted that forced labour was regarded as a form
of servitude. 55 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides in article 8(3)(a)
that “[n]o one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour”, subject to certain specified
exceptions concerning prisoners, military service, emergencies and normal civil obligations.
45. In addition to the two International Covenants on Human Rights, the General Assembly
adopted the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
in 1973, outlawing a number of inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and
maintaining domination by one racial group over any other, including exploitation of the labour
of the members of a racial group or groups by subjecting them to forced labour.
46. Regional agreements have subsequently come into force which contain similar provisions to
the two International Covenants, such as the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights (art. 4(2)), the American Convention on Human Rights (art. 6) and the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights (art. 5). The European Commission on Human Rights has identified
two factors that must be present when considering forced or compulsory labour, “firstly, that the
work is performed against the complainant’s will and secondly, that the work entails unavoidable
hardship to the complainant”. 56
47. The Trafficking Protocol, which has not yet come into effect, criminalizes transnational trafficking
in persons for the purpose of exploitation of forced labour or services. 57
48. Other categories of practices similar to slavery that have over the years been incorporated
in the forced labour concept by the ILO include debt bondage and child labour. These categories
are considered under separate headings below.
C. Debt Bondage
49. Debt bondage (often termed “bonded labour”, which refers to exactly the same practices) is
defined in the Supplementary Convention as the “status or condition arising from a pledge by a
debtor of his personal services or those of a person under his control as security for a debt, if the
value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or
the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined” (art. 1(a)). The
53
ILO Convention No. 29, supra note 44, art. 2(2)(d). Emergency situations include war, calamity or threatened
calamity, such as fire, flood, famine, earthquake, violent epidemic, that threaten a country’s existence, but the extent
and length of service should be strictly limited to that which is absolutely necessary. See 1979 General Survey on the
Abolition of Forced Labour, supra note 52, paras. 36-37.
54 Such service (1) must be minor in nature, (2) must benefit the community directly, and (3) may be required only
after the community has been consulted. 1979 General Survey on the Abolition of Forced Labour, supra, note 52,
para. 37.
55 United Nations document E/CN.4/SR.53 (1948).
56 X v. Federal Republic of Germany, Application No. 4653/70, European Commission on Human Rights, Decisions
and Reports, vol. 46, 1974, p. 22.
57 Trafficking Protocol, supra note 28, art. 5.