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International Labour Standards on Forced Labour
The simplicity of the
concept helps make it fundamental: No one shall be forced to
work
Countries which have ratified the Forced Labour
Convention undertake "to suppress the use of forced or compulsory
labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period."
The Committee of Experts, noting global developments and the ascension
of human rights amongst the international community's concerns,
many years ago understood this obligation to require immediate
prohibition and suppression in practice. Hand in hand with this,
the Convention has over the years been the most widely ratified
of all the Fundamental ILO Conventions. Of the 174 ILO member
States 151 had ratified the instrument as of 1 February 2000.
One hundred forty five member States have ratified the Abolition
of Forced Labour Convention, r adopted in 1957 to abolish forced
labours for particular purposes. Over the years the Committee
of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations
have noted hundreds of specific cases of progress in the fight
against forced labour.
Forced
Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
This Convention requires the suppression of forced
or compulsory labour in all its forms. Forced labour is "all
work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace
of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself
voluntarily." For the purposes of the Convention, the term
"forced labour" does not include such as obligations
as military service; work or service which is part of normal civic
obligations; work or service exacted as a consequence of a conviction
in a court of law, under certain conditions; work exacted in cases
of emergencies such as wars, fires, earthquakes, etc.; and minor
communal services as defined. The Convention requires "really
adequate" and strictly enforced penal penalties at the national
level in cases of illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour.
Abolition
of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
This Convention prohibits the use of any form of
forced or compulsory labour as a means of:
- political coercion or education, or punishment
for the expression of political or ideological views,
- workforce mobilization for purposes of economic
development,
- labour discipline,
- punishment for participation in strikes, or
- racial, social, national or religious discrimination.
International labour standards on forced labour
promise to remain at the forefront of ILO standards, invoked time
and again in the international effort to effectively secure basic
human rights in all corners of the globe.
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