A/HRC/24/43
F.
Forced labour
32.
Slavery and compulsory or forced labour are separate practices that are addressed
independently in most international human rights documents. The Slavery Convention
establishes that States should “take all necessary measures to prevent compulsory or forced
labour from developing into conditions analogous to slavery” (art. 5). ILO Convention No.
29 (1930) concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour defines forced labour as, “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” (art. 2). The Convention on the Rights
of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families, ILO Convention No. 182 and the European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) all address forced labour.
V. Challenges in combating contemporary forms of slavery
A.
Legal and policy challenges
33.
There are a number of legal limitations that present challenges in protecting
individuals from becoming the victims of contemporary forms of slavery. First, some
countries have failed to ratify the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery,
the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, including El Salvador,
Liberia and Peru. In other cases, many countries that have ratified the Convention have not
brought their domestic legislation into line with international standards. Still other countries
also fail to explicitly define, prohibit or sanction specific forms of slavery, making it
difficult to prosecute such cases. In Colombia, for example, the law does not specify
sanctions for forced labour, except in cases involving trafficking in persons, while in
Philippines, labour experts have noted that many laws prohibiting contemporary forms of
slavery only cover children, victims of trafficking and victims of forced labour subjected to
violence or debt bondage.
34.
Legal loopholes that fail to cover certain categories of workers may also allow for
their exploitation. This is the case in France and a number of other countries, where labour
laws do not cover domestic workers (A/HRC/15/20, para. 74). In Guatemala, the law fails
to provide special protections for agricultural workers and instead includes legislation that
discriminates against them. It was not until 2011, for example, that the minimum wage for
agricultural workers was set at the same level as that for workers in other sectors, while
payments in kind, a remnant of peonage in Guatemala, are still permitted in the agricultural
sector.26
35.
Even if prosecutors are able to successfully prosecute cases, penalties and fines are
often too low to be dissuasive. For example, in Morocco, employers found guilty of using
forced labour are subject to fines of approximately USD 3,000–3,500 for a first offence and
double for a subsequent offence, along with a jail sentence of 6–90 days.27 However, these
sanctions are not sufficiently dissuasive.
36.
Certain countries also have laws that make migrant workers vulnerable to slaverylike practices. For example, in the Dominican Republic, temporary migrants must be
26
27
10
Verité. Research on Indicators of Forced Labor in the Supply Chain of Coffee in Guatemala (2012).
ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, observation
concerning Convention No. 29: Morocco, adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011).
Available from
www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:13100:0::NO:13100:P13100_COMMENT_ID:2326286.
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