The Role of the International Labour Organization to Eradicate Forced Labour: A Centenary Analysis from 1919 to Nowadays

Introduction

The article provides a systematic understanding of the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in eradicating forced labour from its foundation in 1919 to nowadays. Moreover, it elaborates how the mission and agenda of the Organization changed over time throughout the economic, social, and political changes with a significant focus on its strengths and weaknesses in fighting forced labour in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Understanding Forced Labour: Definition and Significance

The forced labour issue has been at the heart of human rights discussions for a long time, which caused the definition to change over time. Nevertheless, the universally accepted definition of the term was made in the Forced Labour Convention (No.29) in 1930 by the ILO. According to Article 2, “the term forced or compulsory labour shall mean all work and service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered voluntarily.” In this respect, the three main elements of forced labour are “work or service”, “menace of any penalty”, and “involuntariness”.

The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No.105) of ILO in 1957 brought a wider perspective to the term. According to Article 1, any member of the ILO which ratified the Convention shall not tolerate forced labour also “as a means of political coercion, or education, or as a punishment for holding or expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system. Article 1 also underlined that “forced or compulsory labour shall not be used as a method of mobilising and using labour for purposes of economic development, as a means of labour discipline, as a punishment for having participated in strikes, therefore, as a means of racial, social, national or religious discrimination".

Forced Labour as an increasing phenomenon: Regional and Global Statistics

According to Global Estimates and Modern Slavery, there were 49.6 million people in modern slavery in 2021, Additionally, 27.6 million of those are accounted for forced labour. Simply put, this number means that every 3.5 individuals out of every thousand people were exploited as forced labour in 2021. Moreover, while women and girls constitute 11.8 million of the total in forced labour, the number of children in forced labour in the same year is 3.3 . Additionally, the number of people exploited as forced labour has increased in recent years. According to the same report, the number of people exploited as forced labour increased by 2.7 million between 2016 and 2021. In a simpler comparison, the prevalence of forced labour rose from 3.4 to 3.5 per thousand people in the world in the same period.

Forced labour exists in all countries, including the richest ones. Upper-middle income and high-income countries account for more than half of the forced labour. The same report underlines that the most forced labour exploitation occurs in the private economy at 86%, while state-imposed forced labour accounts for 14%. Moreover, all regions in the world are affected by forced labour. In detail, the Asia and Pacific region has the highest number of forced labour, while the highest prevalence exists in the Arab States. All sectors in the private economy are also affected by forced labour at different rates; therefore, the extent of the involvement in forced labour exploitation is different for women and men.

An Historical Overview: Forced Labour Discussion in the ILO in 20^th Century

There are several driving forces, including security, political, humanitarian, and economic considerations, that resulted in the foundation of the International Labour Organization in 1919. Social justice was recognized as the main constituent for securing peace and preventing the exploitation of the workers in the industrialising nations of that time. Moreover, with the increasing understanding of the world’s economic interdependence, the Organization aimed to increase the cooperation between the member states to attain similar working conditions in countries competing for the market. The unique tripartite structure of the Organization also made the Organization an important forum, in which governments, employers, and workers debate and elaborate the labour standards.

The forced labour discussion also started in the ILO, immediately afterwards the foundation of the Organization in 1919 with the question of colonial labour. However, the definition of the term was mostly affected by the economic and political interests of the colonial powers. The treatment of colonies was one of the main discussions during the 2nd International Labour Conference (ILC) in 1920, therefore, the forced labour issue was debated by the International Labour Standards (ILS). Under Article 35 of the ILO Constitution, which was known as the “colonial clause”, the colonial Powers were given the freedom to exempt their colonies from certain international labour standards.

The discussion of forced labour had a significant turn after the Second World War. The shift was mainly from the traditional colonial aspects to the massive use of forced labour as a means of political punishment, economic exploitation, and means of extermination. Moreover, although the focus was on forced labour, mostly in Nazi concentration camps and Soviet Gulags, some argue that the discussion immediately shifted into an “East-West conflict” within the Organization.

Nevertheless, during the period between 1948 to 1970, there was also a continual change in the ILO, under the Director-General of David A. Morse. With the Decolonization, many new states emerged in the ILO system. Programs and standards were reorganised according to the needs of these newly emerging states, which were mostly suffering from poverty and underdevelopment.

During this period, the Technical Assistance Program (TAP) was developed to assist the less economically developed members of the ILO; therefore, the program aimed to be a democratic road to their modernization during decolonization. Through the program, one of the most significant attempts of the ILO was the adoption of the new “Employment Policy Convention and Recommendation (No.122)” in 1964. Both documents emphasised “the free choice in employment, and the favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment”, as opposed to forced labour.

With the rapid globalisation through the end of the 1960s, particularly young people became more vulnerable to forced labour exploitation due to the increasing developmental concerns of economically underdeveloped countries. Hence, the “Special Youth Schemes Recommendation (no. 136)” was adopted by the ILO in 1970. The Recommendation particularly considered the importance of the International Labour Standards (ILS) relevant to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957. As a result, although the training-oriented labour service, which had the vocational training of recruiters as a primary purpose, was accepted, the work-oriented labour service, which had the aim of sole economic development, was rejected.

During the 1980s and 1990s, there was an increasing awareness of gender and gender-related subjects. The focus on gender also gave a greater light on women subjected to forced labour in various sectors, including the domestic sector and sex industry. This gender focus also kept its place at the International Labour Conferences during the 1980s and the 1990s. For instance, forced labour exploitation of women was one of the main topics during the 72nd Session of ILC in 1986.  Moreover, it specifically mentioned that migrant women particularly were more vulnerable against forced labour, since their living conditions made them accept most unskilled and unhealthy jobs, with or without their consent.

Towards the Millennium: Changing Strategy of the ILO to eradicate forced labour

In 1998, another significant step was taken by the newly adopted ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. It was a shared commitment between governments, and the organisations of employers and workers to keep basic human values on the agenda. Article 2 of the Declaration emphasised that “all members of the ILO, even if they have not ratified the Convention in question, must respect, promote, and realise the principles concerning the fundamental rights, including the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour”. Towards the Millennium, the ILO’s cooperation with other international organisations, such as UNDP, IOM, and UNHCR significantly increased. At this point, especially the specific targets 5.2 and 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) increased this cooperation for a full-scale eradication of forced labour on a global level.

Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL) started in 2002 was a part of the ILO’s Programme to promote the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The Program aimed to raise global awareness and understanding of forced labour, while assisting member states to improve and implement new laws, regulations, policies, and action plans for the full abolishment of forced labour. In detail, SAP-FL started several innovative projects with strong policy development to increase the capacity of law enforcement, and labour market institutions. With the program, the significance of field-based projects increased, while the direct support for both the prevention and identification of forced labour was also supported with a special focus on the rehabilitation of its victims. After the SAP-FL, the ILO has taken more concrete steps for the abolition of forced labour in several countries and regions.

IPEC+ Flagship Programme provides a new and primary force to fight against forced labour, child labour, and human trafficking, by combining two major technical programs of the ILO, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and the Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-/FL). The program works on local and global level, therefore, includes  ILO’s constituents, enterprises, and the organization of small producers, NGOs, and civil society. The main focuses of the program are also the rural and informal economies, enterprises and global supply chains, and countries in crisis and fragile situations. By 2022, the IPEC+ has been operated in 80 countries, from the Americas, Africa, and the Arab States to Asia and the Pacific; and Europe to central Asia.

Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (PO. 29) was also adopted in 2014 as a supplement for the Forced Labour Convention in 1930. It started with a preamble, which mentioned the gaps in the implementation of the core forced labour conventions of the ILO. Furthermore, it also argued the urgency of forced labour elimination as soon as possible, while focusing on how it has changed over time, after the adoption of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957. The preamble also noted that the private economy has had an increase in the numbers of forced or completed workers worldwide, and migrants have been one of the most affected groups. The Protocol reaffirmed the definition of forced labour of the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 in Article 1 and gave a greater perspective on the prevention of forced labour in Article 2.

Bridge Project: A Bridge to Global Action on Forced Labour, launched in September 2015 and ended in March 2023, aimed to support the eradication of forced labour on a national and global level under the principles of the forced labour Protocol and Recommendations of 2014. The main objective of the Bridge project was to overcome traditional and state-imposed forced labour, and to decrease the rate of contemporary forms of forced labour, which has also had a significant link with human trafficking. The Project covered and sought different implementations in the Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Mauritania, Nepal, Niger, Peru, and Uzbekistan. It also produced a Joint ILO-IPU Handbook for Parliamentarians on Eliminating Forced Labour, ICLS Guidelines concerning the measurement of forced labour, a Toolkit for journalists, and a Guidance Tool on National Action Plans on Forced Labour. Phase 2nd of the Bridge Project (Bridge Project II), started in December 2022, mainly aimed to increase the support of the national and global effort to fight forced labour, under the supervision of the 2014 ILO Protocol and Recommendation of Forced Labour, specifically in Mongolia until the end of June 2025.

ILO Global Business Network on Forced Labour (ILO GBNFL), founded in 2020, brings together the ILO with businesses from all sectors regardless of their size or operations to eradicate forced labour. ILO GBNFL members cooperate to develop actionable resources and tools and to produce local solutions for shaping national frameworks to create lasting change. Apple Inc., Coca-Cola, Mars, the Walt Disney Company, and V Corporation have been among the company members of the ILO GBNFL.

Conclusion

The ILO has always been the most important international actor to set universal labour standards, and to improve labour-related policies in line with decent work and social justice principles. At this point, the ILO has taken valuable steps to eradicate forced labour on a global scale. The organisation presents its strengths, such as the ability to present a multi-layered platform, which enables all the groups to share demands and critiques to all member states, through its unique tripartite structure and regular International Labour Conferences every year. The Organization also has been successfully cooperating with a variety of actors, including local and international NGOs and other UN agencies through field-based projects. Moreover, the ILO has been successful in putting the forced labour issue on its agenda from its earliest years, therefore, it successfully updated its legal response regarding the issue. In this regard, the Forced Labour Convention in 1930 and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention in 1957 have been among the most ratified conventions, respectively by 180 and 178 member states in 2023. However, although the organisation has had significant success in improving and adopting international conventions, protocols, and recommendations on forced labour, it does not have any mechanism to make the states fully respect their commitments Furthermore, since most forced labour occurs in the private and underground economy, it is quite difficult to interfere. Hence, the complexity of the forced labour issue also blocks the efforts of the ILO.

In conclusion, the current situation shows that the ILO is very far from its purpose of total eradication of forced labour by 2030. On the other hand, the future fight against forced labour cannot be thought of without the Organization since the issue will always require a comprehensive effort on a global level. Hence, the ILO must keep the adaptation of its legal framework, and spread its projects and fieldwork to all areas where forced labour exploitation occurs.