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

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Abolishing Slavery
wages that are insufficient to maintain the workers and their families.
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The objective of the Con-
vention concerning Minimum Wage Fixing, with Special Reference to Developing Countries,
1970 (No. 131),
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and its accompanying Recommendation No. 135, is to give wage-earners the
necessary social protection in terms of minimum permissible levels of wages.
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54. In view of the prevalence of bonded labour among the landless in rural areas, Governments
may in some instances be required to reform the existing land tenure systems in order to prevent
debt bondage and thereby comply with their obligations under the Supplementary Convention. In
addition to passing legislation to abolish debt bondage, to extinguish debts that have been
incurred and to take preventive action, rehabilitation is a crucial element that Governments must
undertake to fulfil their obligations under ILO Conventions Nos. 95 and 117. They must ensure
that once bonded workers are freed they will not be drawn back into bonded status by promptly
assuming another loan. India and Pakistan
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have legislation requiring the respective Govern-
ments to make payments to individuals identified as bonded labourers, seeking to prevent the pro-
cess of bonded labour from starting again. 
D. Migrant Workers
55. While all the existing instruments concerning slavery, servile status and forced labour apply
to aliens and migrant workers as well as others, certain techniques of exploitation akin to slavery
affect migrant workers in particular. These practices include employers confiscating workers’ pass-
ports and, particularly in the case of domestic workers, keeping them effectively in captivity. They
require special remedial action.
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Migrant workers are subjected to a wide range of abuse and dis-
crimination, most of which do not constitute slavery, servitude or forced labour. The International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
was adopted by the United Nations in 1990 in an attempt to counter these practices, but it has not
yet entered into force. The ILO has also adopted a series of conventions to address the employ-
ment of migrant workers.
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56. Women migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to slavery-like exploitation and forced
labour.
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International instruments dealing with traffic in persons across international frontiers also
address some of the problems experienced by migrants. Debt bondage, which affects many
migrant workers, is explicitly addressed by the Supplementary Convention of 1956.
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ILO Convention No. 117, supra note 61, art. 10.
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Convention concerning Minimum Wage Fixing, with Special Reference to Developing Countries, 1970 (No.
131); entered into force on 29 April 1972. Convention No. 131 has been ratified by only 43 States.
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Several previous conventions had a similar objective. ILO Convention No. 26 and Recommendation No. 30
(applicable to trades) and Convention No. 99 and Recommendation No. 89 (applicable to agriculture), which stipulated
that the minimum wage should not be fixed at a lower rate than one which would ensure the subsistence of the worker
and his or her family.
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In India the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 (amended 1985), and in Pakistan the Bonded Labour
System (Abolition) Act, 1992.
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The range of abuses was described in detail by the Sub-Commission’s Special Rapporteur on exploitation of
labour through illicit and clandestine trafficking, Halima Embarek Warzazi, appointed in 1973. Her final report was is-
sued as a United Nations publication in 1986 (Sales No. E.86.XIV.1).
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ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143), United Nations Treaty Series,
vol. 1120, p. 323; entered into force on 9 December 1978, International Labour Office, International Labour Conven-
tions and Recommendations 1919-1991(1992), vol. 2, p. 1091. The provisions of the ILO conventions are mentioned
in the section on Trafficking, infra.
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M. Wijers and Lin Lap-Chew, Trafficking in Women, Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Do-
mestic Labour and Prostitution, Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (1997); see also Secretariat of the Budap-
est Group at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, The Relationship Between Organized Crime
and Trafficking in Aliens (1999).
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See section on Debt Bondage, supra.

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