Resolution II: 
Resolution concerning further work on statistics of forced labour

Geneva, October 2013
19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians

The 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians,

Recognizing the need to improve further the existing methodologies on statistics on forced labour,

Taking note of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), that calls upon member States to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms, and to criminalize the offence, and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), which calls for the suppression of forced labour as a means of political coercion, labour discipline, or racial, social, national or religious discrimination; as a method of mobilizing and using labour for purposes of economic development; and as punishment for having participated in strikes,

Noting that the 17th International Conference of Labour Statisticians recalled the need to define more easily observable criteria that might be used as direct or indirect indicators of the existence of a forced labour situation,

Recalling the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians’ observation that social partners also need to be consulted in the development of indicators of forced labour,

Having reviewed the work undertaken by the ILO on the subject,

Recommends that the Office set up a working group with the aim of sharing best practices on forced labour surveys in order to encourage further such surveys in more countries.

The working group should engage ILO constituents and other experts in discussing and developing international guidelines to harmonize concepts, elaborate statistical definitions, standard lists of criteria and survey tools on forced labour, and to inform the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians on the progress made.

Read the report of the 19th ICLS Conference.

The next ICLS will take place in 2018.