Monitoring International Labor Standards Quality of Information: Summary of a Workshop (2003) / Chapter Skim
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4. Information and Indicators of Forced Labor
4. Information and Indicators of Forced Labor
Pages 30-36
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From page 30... ...
Further complicating matters is the fact that slavery presents a "moving target," as large criminal organizations ship slaves across borders to support widely dispersed economic activities. Changing Definitions of Slavery and Forced Labor In the past, Bales said, governments had much more control over whether an individual was a slave.
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From page 31... ...
This is the approach Bales took to his study of slavery in five countries (Bales, 19991. He spoke to individual businessmen who held slaves, and he tried to understand how the community accepted the use of slave labor, how the slaveholders understood slavery, how the people who were enslaved dealt with it, and how slavery fit into the lives of both slaveholders and slaves.
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From page 32... ...
Rome Final Act (1998) Slavery defined: The "status or condition of a person over whom all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised." Forced labor added: States should "prevent compulsory or forced labor from developing into conditions analogous to slavery." Servitude added: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade should be abolished in all their forms." Servile status added: Practices referred to as servile status should be abolished: (a)
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From page 33... ...
Admitting that there are no "magic bullets," Bales suggested "we step back" to qualitative, exploratory research. It may take longer to research slavery than to learn about violations of other international labor standards, because slavery is a "criminalized .
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From page 34... ...
The test results suggested that government corruption "is one of the prime indicators of whether or not people are going to be trafficked from a country." The relationship between government corruption and trafficking appeared to be much stronger than the relationship between trafficking and other variables, including the infant mortality rate and the proportion of the population under age 14. Calling the analysis more of a "sketch" than a real empirical test because of the weakness of the data, Bales said he looked forward to Ann Tordan's reaction (see below)
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From page 35... ...
She said that Bales's definition of slavery differed "markoclly" from the definition found in UN conventions, which was based on forms of state-sanctionecl slavery that no longer exist. Bales's definition is closer to the definition of forced or compulsory labor in ILO Convention 29, which includes his three core elements loss of free will, use of force or the threat of force, ancl economic exploitation.
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From page 36... ...
Jordan said she prefers to speak about human trafficking, rather than using a "singular definition of slavery," because it more accurately describes the problem, and it helps ensure that "all persons subjected to these crimes are counted." She argued that it is important to document all the different types of forced labor and slavery. This includes the buying and selling of human beings; government acquiescence to such practices; forced labor in businesses, homes, factories, fields, and elsewhere; and forced or servile marriages, forced pregnancies, and domestic servitude.
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