A/HRC/45/8/Add.1
13.
Togo has also ratified the eight fundamental International Labour Organization
(ILO) conventions, namely the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29); the Abolition of
Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105); the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,
1999 (No. 182); the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise
Convention, 1948 (No. 87); the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138); the Equal
Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100); the Discrimination (Employment and
Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111); and the Right to Organise and Collective
Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).
14.
Furthermore, Togo has ratified all key international conventions concerning child
labour.8 As defined in the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182),
the worst forms of child labour comprise the following: (a) all forms of slavery or practices
similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom
and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children
for use in armed conflict; (b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for
the production of pornography or for pornographic performances; (c) the use, procuring or
offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of
drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties; (d) work which, by its nature or the
circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of
children.
15.
Article 3 (a) of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
recognizes the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or
compulsory labour (including in armed conflict) as “slavery or practices similar to slavery”.
This complicates the relationship between slavery, the “institutions and practices similar to
slavery”, and forced labour set out above by including trafficking and forced labour under
the umbrella of slavery or practices similar to slavery in the context of child exploitation.
This reflects international jurisprudence on slavery of adults, through the ambiguous
recognition of “contemporary forms of slavery” as a more encompassing category than
slavery alone,9 and the blanket inclusion of human trafficking in the prohibition of slavery
and forced labour.10
16.
During her visit, the Special Rapporteur received information that the Government
of Togo was taking steps to ratify the ILO Domestic Workers’ Convention, 2011 (No. 189).
17.
Togo has also ratified the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as a number of regional instruments such as
the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the Multilateral Cooperation
Agreement to Combat Child Trafficking in West Africa and the Multilateral Cooperation
Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in West and
Central Africa.
18.
Togo participated in a voluntary national review within the framework of the
Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, 2017 and 2018, but these reviews did not focus on
Goal 8 which, in target 8.7, requests States to “take immediate and effective measures to
eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the
8
9
10
4
The ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138); the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour
Convention, 1999 (No. 182); the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict; and Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography.
See, for instance, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Prosecutor v. Dragoljub
Kunarac, Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković, case No. IT-96-23-T & IT-96-23/1-T, judgment of 22
February 2001; and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Caso Trabajadores de la Hacienda
Brasil Verde v. Brasil, judgment of 20 October 2016 (preliminary objections, merits, reparations and
costs).
See, for instance, European Court of Human Rights, Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia (application No.
25965/04), judgment of 7 January 2010.
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