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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Despite long-running international efforts to end forced labor, including modern forms of slavery and human trafficking, it remains a prevalent occurrence throughout the world. The most recent data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) is disturbing. It discloses that at least 20.9 million people around the world are the victims of forced labor today.
* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at the International Labour Organization website (visited November 17, 2014), http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:P029.
1 Attempts to end forced labor have been ongoing at least since efforts by the League of Nations. See Jean, Allain, Slavery in International Law: Of Human Exploitation and Trafficking 203 (2012)Google Scholar. These efforts built on the work of the antislavery movement that gained strength in the mid-eighteenth century. See Joel, Quirk, The Anti-Slavery Project: From the Slave Trade to Human Trafficking 4–5 (2011)Google Scholar. Earlier seventeenth century examples of remarkably absolute and insistent anti-slavery writing can be found in, American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation 1–24 (James, Basker ed., 2012)Google Scholar.
2 International Labour Office & Special Action Program to Combat Forced Labour, ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour: Results and Methodology 13 (2012)Google Scholar.
3 International Labour Office, Strengthening Action to end Forced Labour, Report IV(1), ILC.103/IV/1 (2013)Google Scholar [hereinafter Strengthening Action to end Forced Labour].
4 See also id.; International Labour Office, Giving Globalisation a Human Face, Report III(1B), ILC.101/III/1B (2012)Google Scholar [hereinafter Giving Globalisation a Human Face]; International Labour Office, Eradication of Forced Labour, Report III (1B), ILC.96/III/IB (2007)Google Scholar.
5 Forced labor is defined as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the . . . person has not offered himself voluntarily.” International Labour Office, Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), Art. 2(1), June 28, 1930, 39 U.N.T.S. 55. The definition is broad enough to cover everything from compelling slave labor to debt bondage, to sexual trafficking and slavery. See Patrick, Belser, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits , ILO Working Paper, DECLARATION/WP/42/2005 (March 2005)Google Scholar.
6 See Strengthening Action to end Forced Labour, supra note 3, at 9–14.
7 See International Labour Office, General Survey on the Report Concerning the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), and the Abolition of Forced Labour (No. 105), ILC, 38th Session, ¶¶ 4–5 (1968); Giving Globalisation a Human Face, supra note 4, ¶ 297; Report of the Director-General, Stopping Forced Labour, Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Report I(B), ILC, 89th Session (2001).
8 See International Labour Office, Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour 45–47 (2014)Google Scholar; Strengthening Action to end Forced Labour, supra note 3, at 14–15 Google Scholar.
9 International Labour Organization, Resolutions Adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 101st Session, at 21 (June 12–14, 2012).
10 International Labour Office, Report for Discussion at the Tripartite Meeting of Experts Concerning the Possible Adoption of an ILO Instrument to Supplement the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29), ILO Doc. TMELE/2013 (Feb. 11–15, 2013)Google Scholar.
11 Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Forced Labour and Trafficking for Labour Exploitation, Conclusions adopted by the Meeting, ¶ 4, ILO Doc. TMELE/2013/6 (Feb. 11–15, 2013).
12 Id. ¶ 26.
13 ILO Governing Body, Report and Conclusions of the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Forced Labour and Trafficking for Labour Exploitation, 317th Sess., ILO Doc. GB.317/INS/INF/3 (Mar. 6–8, 2013).
14 This decision was taken by the Governing Body at its 317th Session, March 6–28, 2013. Decision on the Second Item on the Agenda: Agenda of the International Labour Conference, Proposals for the Agenda of the 103rd Session (2014) and Beyond of the Conference, Minutes of the 317th Session of the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, at 1–5, ILO Doc. GB.317/PV (Mar. 6–8, 2013). See also International Labour Office, Conference Guide, 103rd Session of the International Labour Conference, at 6 (2014), available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_235082.pdf.
15 The ILO single discussion procedure allows the Conference to consider and adopt an international labour standard at a single session, instead of the default position where a standard must be discussed at two annual sessions before adoption. Handbook of Procedures Relating to International Labour Conventions and Regulations 2–4 (ILO Rev. 2006).
16 International Labour Conference, Report of the Committee on Forced Labor, Fourth item on the Agenda: Supplementing the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), to Address Implementation Gaps to Advance Prevention, Protection and Compensation Measures, to Effectively Achieve the Elimination of Forced Labour, ILC Provisional Record, 9 (Rev.), 103rd Session (May–June 2014).
17 See, e.g., Report of the Independent Expert on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, ¶¶ 41–43, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/25/53 (Dec. 30, 2013) ( John, H. Knox); Gwynne, Skinner, Robert, McCorquodale, Olivier De, Schutter, with Andie Lambe, The Third Pillar: Access to Judicial Remedies for Human Rights Violations by Transnational Businesses (2013)Google Scholar; Anne, T. Gallagher, The right to an effective remedy for victims of trafficking in persons: A Survey of International Law and Policy (2010)Google Scholar.
18 Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, U.N. Doc. HR/PUB/02/3, at 1 (2002)Google Scholar; See also Strengthening Action to end Forced Labour, supra note 3, ¶ 85.
19 Strengthening Action to end Forced Labour, supra note 3, ¶¶ 192 n.8, 222.
20 International Labour Office, Eradication of Forced Labour Google Scholar, Report III (Part 1B), General Survey Concerning the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), 96th Session, ¶ 196 (2007)Google Scholar.
