Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Zambia (Ratification: 1964)

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual and labour exploitation. In its earlier comments, the Committee referred to a communication received in October 2002 from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (now the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC), which contained allegations concerning trafficking of women and children to neighbouring countries for the purpose of forced prostitution and kidnapping of Zambians by Angolan combatants who took them to Angola to perform various forms of forced labour. The Committee has noted the Government’s reply to these allegations received in August 2006. The Government states that cases as referred to by the ICFTU have taken place, but they are minimal. However, the Government indicates that Zambia is mainly used as a transit point for trafficked persons to other countries rather than a source.

Referring to its general observation concerning the issue of trafficking in persons made in 2000, the Committee asks the Government to provide, in its next report, information on measures taken or contemplated to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation, and in particular information on the following aspects of law and practice:

–           provisions of national law aimed at the punishment of trafficking in persons, as defined in Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

–           measures taken to ensure that the penal provisions punishing trafficking in persons are strictly enforced, including, in particular, measures designed to encourage the victims to turn to the authorities (such as permission to stay in the country, efficient protection of victims willing to testify);

–           measures designed to strengthen the active investigation of organized crime with regard to trafficking in persons, including international cooperation between law enforcement agencies with a view to preventing and combating the trafficking in persons;

–           cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations as well as non-governmental organizations engaged in the protection of human rights and the fight against the trafficking in persons.

As regards, more particularly, trafficking in children, the Committee asks the Government to refer to its comments made under the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), likewise ratified by Zambia, which provides in Article 3(a) that the worst forms of child labour include “all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour”. The Committee is of the view that this problem may be examined more specifically under Convention No. 182, which requires ratifying States to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency.

The Committee is also addressing a request on certain other points directly to the Government.