Forced Labour

Myanmar ratified C029 - Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) in 1955. The convention defines forced or compulsory labour in its Article 2 as the following.

1.	For the purposes of this Convention the term forced or compulsory labour shall mean 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.
2.	Nevertheless, for the purposes of this Convention, the term forced or compulsory labour shall not include:
	(a)	any work or service exacted in virtue of compulsory military service laws for work of a purely military character;
	(b)	any work or service which forms part of the normal civic obligations 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 public authority and that the said person is not hired to or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations;
	(d)	any work or service exacted in cases of emergency, that is to say, in the event of war or of a calamity or threatened calamity, such as fire, flood, famine, earthquake, violent epidemic or epizootic diseases, invasion by animal, insect or 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.

see: ILO Conventions ratified by Myanmar

And International Labour Organization (ILO) also published a booklet called ILO indicators of Forced Labour presenting the 11 indicators of forced labour.

The indicators are derived from theoretical and practical experience of the ILO’s Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour (SAP-FL). They are based upon the definition of forced labour specified in the ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) 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”.

The booklet in PDF format is available.
Download: self-hosted file
Download: direct from ILO website

The indicators are:

1. Abuse of vulnerability
2. Deception
3. Restriction of movement
4. Isolation
5. Physical and sexual violence
6. Intimidation and threats
7. Retention of identity documents
8. Withholding of wages
9. Debt bondage
10. Abusive working and living conditions
11. Excessive overtime

The booklet presents the eleven indicators in turn, providing real-life examples to illustrate each one, accompanied by a brief explanation of what the indicator means in practice. The indicators will help you to understand how forced labour arises and how it affects its victims.

It is worth to have a look at Guidance on Operational Practice and Indicators of Forced Labour of Sedex. You can download self-hosted file.