INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTER OF THE ILO - TURIN (ITALY)INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTER OF THE ILO - TURIN (ITALY)

FORCED LABOUR EXACTED BY PRIVATE AGENTS

(FORCED LABOUR RESULTING FROMDISCRIMINATION AND POVERTY)

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POVERTY / DISCRIMINATION AND FLPOVERTY / DISCRIMINATION AND FL

Poverty is one of the basic causes of FL by private agents and of

its persistence.

Poverty can alsobe a direct

consequence of FL

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DISCRIMINATION AND FLDISCRIMINATION AND FL

FL today is associated to longstanding patterns of

discrimination

Scheduled castes

and tribes

Minorities: indigenous and

religious

Persons of slave descendent

(in countries with recent history of slavery –Africa)

Indigenouspeople

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FL RELATED TO SLAVERY AND SLAVE STATUSFL RELATED TO SLAVERY AND SLAVE STATUS

• SLAVERY (chattel slaves) :people are treated as property, for purchase and sale, and are held as non-humans without respect for any human right whatsoever.

- relatively rare

- contemporary cases detected in Africa and elsewhere in conflict and post conflict situations

- presence of complex issues of ethnic, social and/or religious discrimination

- very difficult to combat because it is rooted in long tradition

SlaveryConvention,1926

Article 1(1) definesslavery as

"the status or conditionof a person over whom any or all of the powersattaching to the right of

ownership areexercised.”

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DEBT-RELATED FORCED AND BOUNDED LABOURDEBT-RELATED FORCED AND BOUNDED LABOUR

situations in which a worker continues work involuntarily in order to pay off a debt and faces coercion or a penalty if he or she attempts to leave the work…

- intergenerational debts

- advance of wages then augmented by excessive interest rates or provision of goods or services by the employer/creditor

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Situations :

- involving indigenous and tribal people

- in remotes areas

- in which workers end up very far from home (isolation increases vulnerability)

- often connected with seasonal labour migration

- of recourse to recruitment through intermediaries/ independent labour contractors

DEBT-RELATED FORCED AND BOUNDED LABOURDEBT-RELATED FORCED AND BOUNDED LABOUR

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• Need of a clear definition

• Need of a responsive legal framework

• Identification of bonded labourers as an essential step in combating the problem

• The liberation of bonded labourers must follow identification

• Liberation of bonded labourers is insufficient alone, only provision of employment yields lasting freedom

DEBT-RELATED FORCED AND BOUNDED LABOURDEBT-RELATED FORCED AND BOUNDED LABOUR

The way toward combating bounded labour:

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C.29 does not provide a definition of bounded labour, but its definition of FL implicitly includes bounded labour

BOUNDED LABOUR: DEFINITIONBOUNDED LABOUR: DEFINITION

… the status or condition arising from a pledge by adebtor of his personal services or of those of a personunder his control as security for a debt, if the value ofthose services as reasonably assessed is not appliedtowards the liquidation of the debt or the length andnature of those services are not respectively limited anddefined.

UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956

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BOUNDED LABOUR: DEFINITIONBOUNDED LABOUR: DEFINITION

- The term refers to services rendered under conditions of bondage arising from economic considerations (indebtedness through a loan or advance)

-The worker is tied to a particular creditor for a specified or unspecified period until load is repaid.

-In practice, due to poverty, inequality and social status, it is extremely difficult, for the indebted worker, to repay the debt and secure freedom

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BOUNDED LABOUR: RESPONSIVE LEGAL FRAMEWORKBOUNDED LABOUR: RESPONSIVE LEGAL FRAMEWORK

1) National law has to: (Prerequisite but not sufficient):

- provide for a detailed definition of bounded labour and bounded labour systems,- declare unlawful / prohibit the bonded labour system,-declare null and void existing agreements, contracts or customs,- extinguish liability to repay bonded debt obligations.

2) National law must be effective, i.e. MUST BE ENFORCED

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IDENTIFICATION AND LIBERATION IDENTIFICATION AND LIBERATION OF BOUNDED LABOURERSOF BOUNDED LABOURERS

- Once a proper legal framework is in place, bonded labourers have to be identified

- Liberation is not an easy and simple process. In many cases it requires a physical and legal action by authoritative persons

- Problems of resistance by creditors of bounded labourers

- Risk of an atmosphere of impunity

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REHABILITATION MEASURESREHABILITATION MEASURES

• social empowerment and group organisation

• literacy and numeracy training;

• skills training;

• access to employment;

• access to resources for self employment, including land and finance;

• normalization of legal status;

• schooling for children;

• health services;

• housing

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CHALLENGES OF FL STEEMING FROM POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION

The fact that some of the forms of FL here discussed have been around for many years poses particular challenges for combating them:

1) How to tackle the poverty and discrimination that lie behind the persistence of traditional forms of FL

2) How to raise awareness that such forms ofexploitation have no place in modern world

3) How to tackle the impunity that allows perpetratorsof FL to go unpunished