A/HRC/12/21 page 9 31. Forced labour is defined 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”.7 In defining forced labour, the nature of the relationship between the employer and the person forced to work is important. Two basic elements have to be considered: firstly, that the work or service extracted was done under threat or penalty and, secondly, that the work was done involuntarily. 32. Forced labour is often hidden, making it difficult to trace the perpetrators as well as the victims. Many victims of forced labour are ashamed and afraid to speak out; this makes it difficult to prevent and eradicate forced labour. 33. The causes of forced labour are many and varied. They can occur as a result of all or one of the following: poverty; demand for cheap labour; unemployment; a global or national economic crisis. The most striking factor, however, is the increasing human insecurity today and insufficient progress with regard to human rights protection. 34. Traditionally, forced labour takes the form of bonded labour and serfdom. 35. Time and realities may have changed but the core essence of slavery persists in modern economies. In its modern forms, we find forced labour in agriculture, domestic servitude, the garment industry, the construction industry and prostitution and in the supply chains of mainstream companies.8 36. Forced labour occurs in the formal and informal sectors. Generally, the people working in the informal sector are more vulnerable to forced labour. In some areas, bonded labour patterns reflect traditional feudal relationships. However, newer dynamics of forced and bonded labour relationships are emerging, for example, in agriculture, where traditional relationships between the agricultural worker and the landlord are replaced by seasonal migration. In addition, previously formal sectors, such as the construction industry, also tend to become increasingly informal with the use of contractors and intermediaries to hire workers, often for short periods. Such situations reinforce the risk of trafficking and bonded labour. 37. Recent data presented by ILO show that the estimated minimum number of persons involved in the world of illicit forced labour is 12.3 million.9 This means that millions of people in modern society are excluded from directly contributing to the development of their communities and the wealth of their families. They are ultimately unable to exercise their rights in their communities and their countries. 38. ILO also states that, regarding global minimum estimates of forced labour in its main forms, 64 per cent of forced labour is for economic exploitation by private economic agents, 20 per cent is imposed by the State or military, 11 per cent is forced labour for commercial 7 ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), art. 2. 8 See Patrick Belser, Michaelle de Cock and Farhad Mehran, ILO minimum estimate of forced labour in the world, International Labour Organization, 2005. 9 Ibid.