Achievements in the Area of Forced Labour

Abstract

No government officially condones forced or compulsory labour today, though leaders of the Burmese junta practice it and quite a number of developing countries have still not removed all vestiges of compulsory mobilization for development purposes. Others allow the employment of prisoners under conditions that the CEACR finds to be in contradiction of Convention No. 105. The State has actually receded into the background as organizer of forced labour. Today, it is primarily private actors — employers, landlords, intermediaries, recruitment agents and the like — who force and threaten others to work against their will (ILO, 2001b). Trafficking, which has been called the underside of globalization, has emerged as a new factor that frequently, albeit not inevitably, results in forced employment (ILO, 2003d and 2003e).