Forced Labor and Slavery

Report Outline
New Drive on Forced Labor and Slavery
Extent of Forced Labor and Slavery Today
United States Policy on Human Rights Pacts

New Drive on Forced Labor and Slavery

Renewed efforts to raise effective legal barriers to systems of forced labor, and to wipe out remnants of human servitude still found in parts of the world today, are to be made this spring by organs of the United Nations. Since 1949 the Economic and Social Council and the International Labor Organization have been conducting inquiries into the extent of forced labor and slavery and adopting resolutions condemning such institutions as violative of fundamental human rights. This year the member governments will be asked to support stronger measures, including two proposed conventions, designed to eliminate forced or slave labor and all traces of traffic in slaves.

The Economic and Social Council has completed the first draft of a new convention on abolition of slavery, and institutions similar to slavery, for consideration at a session opening Apr. 17 at U.N. headquarters in New York City. Meanwhile, the International Labor Organization has queried its members on whether they would support a similar convention to bar use of forced labor for political or economic purposes; the question will be fully discussed at the I.L.O.'s annual conference at Geneva in June.

A majority of the governments belonging to I.L.O. already have sent affirmative replies. Thirty-eight of the member governments have signified their intention to support some form of international agreement dealing with forced labor; 34 of them, including the Soviet Union, have come out for a new treaty or convention. The only major industrial country not on record as favoring such a pact is the United States.