A/HRC/39/52 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”.6 15. Slavery, in its traditional form as chattel slavery exists at one end of a continuum of human exploitation. Domestic and other forms of servitude, forced labour and other slavery-like practices exist along this continuum. 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 or herself voluntarily”. 7 At the other end of the continuum is decent work, which respects all fundamental principles and rights at work. 8 Access to decent work is the antidote to slavery and all forms of labour exploitation and human rights violations at work. It forms a key objective of target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which encompasses a universal commitment to eradicate forced labour and end modern slavery and human trafficking. 16. Slavery, servitude and forced labour often occur as a result of human trafficking, which under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is explicitly linked to those forms of exploitation. The present report, however, focuses only on voluntary migration for domestic work. III. State obligations under international human rights law and labour law to protect migrant workers in domestic servitude 17. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the right of everyone, among other rights, to the right to work, which includes the right to the opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or accepted; to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work; to form trade unions and join a trade union of one’s choice; and the right to social security, including social insurance. This right applies to everyone including to migrant workers. 9 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for a catalogue of rights, including equality before the law without any discrimination and freedom of association (arts. 26 and 22 respectively), which also apply to migrant workers without discrimination. 18. Additionally, States bear specific obligations to protect the human rights of migrant workers under the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. In article 2 of the Convention a migrant worker is defined as a person “engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national”. In article 5 migrant workers are defined as “in an irregular situation” if they are not authorized to enter, to stay and to engage in a remunerated activity in the destination country. Under article 11, migrant workers are protected from being held in slavery or servitude or from being required to perform forced or compulsory labour. 19. The fundamental ILO conventions 10 and the ILO Migration for Employment Convention 1949 (No. 97) and the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) 6 7 8 9 10 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, art. 1 (a). See International Labour Organization (ILO) Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), art. 2. “Promoting jobs and enterprise, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection and promoting social dialogue are the four pillars of the ILO Decent Work Agenda with gender as a crosscutting theme”, foreword to ILO, “Decent work and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. See also ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998), which commits ILO member States to respect and promote the elimination of child labour and forced labour, freedom from discrimination at work and freedom of association and collective bargaining, whether or not they have ratified the relevant ILO conventions. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 18 (2005) on the right to work, para. 30. The fundamental ILO Conventions are: the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87); the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98); the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29); the Abolition of Forced Labour 5