ILO adopts new protocol to eliminate forced labor

MANILA, Philippines - The International Labor Organization (ILO) has adopted a legally binding protocol designed to strengthen global efforts to eliminate forced labor.

The protocol aims to advance prevention, protection and compensation measures and other efforts aimed at eliminating contemporary forms of slavery.

Currently, forced labor victims are estimated at 21 million worldwide. More than half of the victims of forced labor are women and girls, primarily in domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation, while men and boys were primarily in forced economic exploitation in agriculture, construction and mining.

A recent ILO report estimates that $150 billion in illegal profits are made in the private economy each year through modern forms of slavery.

The protocol strengthens the international legal framework by creating new obligations to prevent forced labor, protect victims and provide access to remedy such as compensation for material and physical harm.

It requires governments to take measures to better protect workers, particularly migrant laborers, from fraudulent and abusive recruitment practices and emphasizes the role of employers and workers in the fight against forced labor.

ILO director general Guy Ryder said the protocol was supported by a recommendation and adopted by majority of the government, employer and worker delegates to the International Labor Conference (ILC), with 437 votes for, 27 abstentions and eight against.

The new protocol brings the existing ILO Convention 29 on Forced Labor, which was adopted in 1930, into the modern era to address practices such as human trafficking. The accompanying recommendation provides technical guidance on its implementation.

“The protocol and recommendation mark a major step forward in the fight against forced labor and represent a firm commitment among governments, employer and worker organizations to eliminate contemporary forms of slavery,” Ryder noted.

“Forced labor violates the human rights and dignity of millions of women and men, girls and boys. It contributes to the perpetuation of poverty and stands in the way of the achievement of decent work for all,” he added.

The ILC Committee has agreed on the need for a legally binding instrument that establishes a common framework for the 177 ILO member states that have ratified Convention 29 – as well as the eight countries that have not – to move towards the elimination of forced labor.

For David Garner, president of the ILC Committee on Forced Labor and representative of the Australian government, the “new instruments will complement and strengthen existing international law, in particular the United Nations Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children.”

Ed Potter, committee employer vice chair, said “the protocol and recommendation represent a call to action.”