INTERNATIONAL TRAINING CENTER OF THE ILO - TURIN (ITALY) FORCED LABOUR EXACTED BY PRIVATE AGENTS (FORCED LABOUR RESULTING FROM DISCRIMINATION AND POVERTY)

2 POVERTY / DISCRIMINATION AND FL Poverty is one of the basic causes of FL by private agents and of its persistence. Poverty can also be a direct consequence of FL

3 DISCRIMINATION 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) Indigenous people

4 FL 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 Slavery Convention,1926 Article 1(1) defines slavery as "the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.”

5 DEBT-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

6 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 LABOUR

7 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 LABOUR The way toward combating bounded labour:

8 C.29 does not provide a definition of bounded labour, but its definition of FL implicitly includes bounded labour BOUNDED LABOUR: DEFINITION … the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt, if the value 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. UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956

9 BOUNDED 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

10 BOUNDED 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

11 IDENTIFICATION AND LIBERATION OF 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

12 REHABILITATION 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

13 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 of exploitation have no place in modern world 3)How to tackle the impunity that allows perpetrators of FL to go unpunished