Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms

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Abolishing Slavery
vices “being performed by the members of the community in the direct interest of the said
community”.
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3. Other relevant human rights instruments
44. The ILO forced labour conventions are essentially the only international instruments that set
out a definition of forced labour, although its prohibition is endorsed by many treaties, both inter-
national and regional. The International Bill of Human Rights contains various provisions relevant
to forced labour. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration does not specifically refer to forced labour
but it is clear from discussions at the time it was drafted that forced labour was regarded as a form
of servitude.
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The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides in article 8(3)(a)
that “[n]o one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour”, subject to certain spec-
ified exceptions concerning prisoners, military service, emergencies and normal civil obligations.
45. In addition to the two International Covenants on Human Rights, the General Assembly
adopted the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apart-
heid in 1973, outlawing a number of inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and
maintaining domination by one racial group over any other, including exploitation of the labour
of the members of a racial group or groups by subjecting them to forced labour.
46. Regional agreements have subsequently come into force which contain similar provisions to
the two International Covenants, such as the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights (art. 4(2)), the American Convention on Human Rights (art. 6) and the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights (art. 5). The European Commission on Human Rights has identified
two factors that must be present when considering forced or compulsory labour, “firstly, that the
work is performed against the complainant’s will and secondly, that the work entails unavoidable
hardship to the complainant”.
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47. The Trafficking Protocol, which has not yet come into effect, criminalizes transnational traf-
ficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation of forced labour or services.
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48. Other categories of practices similar to slavery that have over the years been incorporated
in the forced labour concept by the ILO include debt bondage and child labour. These categories
are considered under separate headings below.