ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and
having met in its Fourteenth Session on 10 June 1930, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to forced or compulsory labour,
which is included in the first item on the agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts this twenty‐eighth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and thirty the
following Convention, which may be cited as the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, for ratification by
the Members of the International Labour Organisation in accordance with the provisions of the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation:
Article 1
1. Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention undertakes
to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period.
(Article 1(2) was a transitional provision and is no longer applicable.)
3. At the expiration of a period of five years after the coming into force of this Convention, and when
the Governing Body of the International Labour Office prepares the report provided for in Article 31
below, the said Governing Body shall consider the possibility of the suppression of forced or
compulsory labour in all its forms without a further transitional period and the desirability of placing
this question on the agenda of the Conference.
Article 2
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;