Despite its continued occurrence in some parts of Africa, however, it has not been the most common form since its abolition in the 19th century and the end of Western colonialism. Forced labor in newer forms, slavery-like practices such as bonded labor or debt bondage (when someone is forced to work to repay a debt) and human trafficking are much more common and exist on all continents, in all types of economies and in almost all countries, despite nearly universal legal prohibitions. For example, Article 18 of the Turkish Constitution states: “No one shall be forced to work. Forced labor is prohibited.”
Forced labor is, like slavery and serfdom, although to a lesser degree, an abhorrent human rights violation and a severe restriction of a person's liberty. It is not, however, the same as work done at relatively low wages and under austere working conditions, which is indispensable but still voluntary due to lack of any other employment. Nevertheless, many people -- especially those on the left, as well as labor unions, in developed countries -- oppose and condemn “sweatshops” in developing countries that pay relatively low wages under hard working conditions by developed country standards as if those who work in such places were all subjected to forced labor when, in fact, they are not.
The worldwide contagion of the forced labor scourge, which is concentrated in the informal sector of developing countries but also widespread in developed countries, is one of the most undesirable and reprehensible consequences of globalization. Globalization has provided multiple significant benefits to most people around the world, but it has also facilitated the oppression of millions of people through forced labor. Forced labor, driven by extremely high economic returns for its perpetrators in the absence of effective sanctions compared to those against global drug trade, inflicts severe suffering and huge economic costs on the weakest social groups, such as the poor, the young, ethnic and religious minorities and the less educated, who are the most vulnerable to coercion and deception. It is both a human rights issue and an economic issue and deserves serious attention, as the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN organization based in Geneva, has emphasized in its recent publications. The urgency of this issue has increased as a result of the global financial and economic crises, which have exposed more and more unemployed people, especially in developing countries, to the enticement and misery of forced labor. Although the global financial crisis has given rise to calls for the tighter regulation of the financial sector, the blight of forced labor has not elicited similar demands for stricter enforcement of sanctions to curb, if not eradicate it.
A 1930 ILO convention, the Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), defined forced labor 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.” This definition excluded compulsory military service and prison labor, although recently both of these have come under scrutiny in studies and debates on forced labor. This convention also required that forced labor be a penal offense subject to adequate and strict penalties in all ILO member states.
It has received almost universal acceptance, as the most broadly ratified ILO convention, with ratification by 173 of the 182 ILO members. Turkey ratified it in 1998. Canada, China, South Korea and the United States are among the countries that have not ratified it. It was followed in 1957 by the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105), in which forced labor was said to constitute “a violation of the rights of man referred to in the Charter of the United Nations and enunciated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
This convention was prompted largely by the state-imposed mass forced labor during and after World War II for ideological and political purposes. Without changing the legal definition of forced labor, it specified those objectives, such as economic development, political education, racial, social, national or religious discrimination, labor discipline and penalties for striking, for which forced labor can never be imposed. It also required the immediate and complete abolition of forced labor. It has been ratified by 171 ILO members, including Turkey, which ratified it in 1961. China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam are among the countries that have not ratified it. Forced labor is also one of the worst forms of child labor. The ILO has two separate conventions, dating to 1973 and 1999, on the abolition of child labor. Since child labor is not always involuntary and is exacted under the menace of penalty, it is treated separately from forced labor. Turkey ratified these two conventions in 1998 and 2001, respectively.
The introduction of the concept of exploitation into international law has been controversial. Migrant workers, especially ethnic and racial minorities, and women, particularly those who are young, poor and uneducated, are the most vulnerable to human trafficking. Turkey ratified the UN convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2003 when it went into effect. The Turkish Penal Code (TCK) prohibits human trafficking. In several studies, including those by the ILO, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the US Department of State, however, Turkey has been highlighted as a significant source, transit route and destination country for human trafficking, despite the recent praiseworthy efforts of the Turkish government to crack down on human traffickers.
The ILO has taken the lead globally in researching and fighting forced labor, with the publication of three reports and several other initiatives. These reports are “Stopping Forced Labour” (2001), “A Global Alliance against Forced Labour” (2005) and “The Cost of Coercion,” which was published this month. In 2008 it also issued a manual titled “Forced Labour and Human Trafficking -- A Handbook for Labour Inspectors.” These and several other documents concerning forced labor can be accessed at the ILO's Web site: www.ilo.org. In my next column, I will review the three ILO reports that identify global and regional trends in and estimate the costs of forced labor and human trafficking.
