The Forced Labour Convention, the full title of which is the Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, 1930 (No.29), is one of eight
ILO fundamental conventions of the
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
. Its object and purpose is to suppress the use of forced labour in all its forms irrespective of the nature of the work or the sector of activity in which it may be performed. The Convention defines forced labour 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", with few exceptions like compulsory military service. The convention excludes "adult able-bodied males", to whom legal imposition of forced labour is allowed.
The convention was adopted in Geneva 28 June 1930 and came into force on 1 May 1932. By the end of 1932 ten countries had ratified the convention (Japan, Bulgaria, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Liberia, and Ireland). Austria in 1960, Luxembourg in 1964 and Malta in 1965 were the last Western European countries to ratify the convention. Canada ratified it in 2011 and as of 2022, the United States has not ratified it.
The convention was supplemented by the
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention which canceled a number of exceptions to abolition in the 1930 Convention, such as punishment for strikes and as a punishment for holding certain political views.
Exceptions
Article 2 of the Convention excepts from the term ''forced or compulsory labour'' the following:
:(a) any work or service exacted in virtue of
compulsory military service
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day ...
laws for work of a purely military character;
:(b) any work or service which forms part of the normal
civic obligations
Civil conscription is the obligation of civilians to perform mandatory labour for the government. This kind of work has to correspond with the exceptions in international agreements, otherwise it could fall under the category of unfree labour. Th ...
of the citizens of a fully
self-governing country;
:(c) any work or service exacted from any person as a consequence of a conviction in a
court of law, provided that the said work or service is carried out under the supervision and control of a
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;
:(d)_any_work_or_service_exacted_in_cases_of_emergency,_that_is_to_say,_in_the_event_of_
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:(d) any work or service exacted in cases of emergency, that is to say, in the event of war, of a disaster">calamity
Calamity may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Calamity'' (album), by The Curtains (2008)
* Calamity (board game), board game released by Games Workshop in 1983
* ''Calamity'' (film), 1982 Czechoslovak film
* ''Calamity, a Childhood ...
or threatened calamity, such as fire, flood, famine, earthquake, violent epidemic or epizootic diseases, invasion by: animal, insect or noxious weed, vegetable pests, and in general any circumstance that would endanger the existence or the well-being of the whole or part of the population;
:(e) minor communal services of a kind which, being performed by the members of the community in the direct interest of the said community, can therefore be considered as normal civic obligations incumbent upon the members of the community, provided that the members of the community or their direct representatives shall have the right to be consulted in regard to the need for such services.
Article 11 of the Convention states that "forced or compulsory labour" may be imposed only upon "adult able-bodied males who are of an apparent age of not less than 18 and not more than 45 years".
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