Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2024, publiée 113ème session CIT (2025)

Convention (n° 29) sur le travail forcé, 1930 - Chine (Ratification: 2022)

The Committee welcomes the timely first report presented by the Government and the detailed information on the comprehensive legal and regulatory framework developed in the last few decades to suppress all forms of forced labour. It welcomes the significant efforts made at strengthening the national law and practice to combat various forms of forced labour in this period of time with the technical assistance intermittently provided by the Office since 2003. The Committee recognizes in particular the progress China has been making in that period towards the effective application of the Convention in preparing for its ratification, notably the adoption of the Labour Contracts Law (2007), which has formalized employment relationships reducing the vulnerability of workers to forced labour and has introduced specific provisions supporting the prevention or prohibition of forced labour; the abolition of “re-education through labour” (劳动敎养) in 2013; the amendment of article 241, paragraph 6, of the Criminal Law in 2015 to criminalize any act of buying women and children who are victims of trafficking; the abolition of the “custody and education” (收容教育) system for sex workers and their clients in 2019; the gradual strengthening of penal sanctions for perpetrators of forced labour in the Criminal Law; the ratification of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2010; the determination to investigate administrative, civil and criminal liability associated with forced labour, combat cyber-facilitated trafficking in persons crimes and improving labour recruitment procedures in China’s Action Plan against Human Trafficking (2021–2030) approved by the State Council in 2021; and the Administrative Provisions on Internships for Vocational School Students approved by nine ministries in 2021 and strengthened protection of students in section 50 of the Vocational Education Law (2023).

Article 1(1) of the Convention. Forced or compulsory labour of ethnic and religious minorities. The Committee notes the observations made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), received on 18 September 2024, aspects of which have been the subject of its examination of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), in 2021 and 2022 – and that of the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in 2022 – as well as of its past and current examination of the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122). In its latest observations, the ITUC alleges widespread and state-sponsored forced labour practices in both the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) and the Tibet Autonomous Region (Tibet). According to the ITUC, two major systems of coercive work placement coexist in Xinjiang. Firstly, a system of arbitrary detention for Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities suspected of endangering social stability and national security (the “Vocational Skills Training and Education Centers” or VSTEC system) which since 2020 has been replaced with institutionalized long-term detention in regular prisons following a formal legal process, notably of prominent intellectuals and continued forced placement of “released” detainees in labour-intensive industries such as textiles and electronics. Secondly, a system of transferring “surplus” rural workers from low-income traditional livelihoods pursuits into industries such as the processing of raw materials for the production of solar panels, batteries and other vehicle parts; seasonal agricultural work; and seafood processing. In recent years, based on an intensified campaign of investigating and monitoring the poverty status of millions of rural households, the authorities had raised targets leading to increased cross-provincial labour transfers. At the same time, local authorities had “actively guided” ethnic smallholder farmers to transfer their agricultural plots to large state-led cooperatives, thus “liberating” “surplus” rural workers for transfer into manufacturing or the service sector. The ITUC alleges that in the last decade, similar policies have been pursued in the Tibet Autonomous Region (Tibet). These policies would apply coercive methods such as military-style vocational training methods and the involvement of political cadres to have Tibetan nomads and farmers swap their traditional livelihoods for jobs providing measurable cash income in industries such as road construction, mining or food-processing, thereby diluting “the negative influence of religion”. Placement incentives to local labour brokers and companies had facilitated a gradual increase in the labour transfer of rural workers to reach 630,000 workers in 2024. The Committee requests the Government to provide its detailed comments in reply to these observations from the ITUC.

The Committee notes the reports of various UN human rights mechanisms in recent years examining similar allegations while welcoming the ratification of Conventions Nos 29 and 105. In 2022, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) under its Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure called for an immediate investigation of all allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang, including those of forced labour. In 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) expressed concern regarding the employment situation of Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Hui and Turkic-speaking peoples, as well as other ethnic minorities in China, particularly Muslim minorities, that provides numerous indications of coercive measures, including forced labour (E/C.12/CHN/CO/3). In 2023, the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women expressed concern about reports that “labour transfer” and “vocational training” programmes in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China relegated Tibetan women to training in low-skilled jobs and disregarded their unique skills; and about reports of coercive employment measures against Uyghur women, including forced labour, in addition to sexual violence in vocational education and training centres for Uyghur women. Various mandates of the UN Human Rights Council have on several occasions received information that appear to support the allegations currently before the Committee.

The Committee further recalls its own previous comments and those of the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in respect of the application by China of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). In these comments, it had expressed deep concern in respect of serious allegations of discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, based on policy guidelines expressed in numerous national and regional policy and regulatory documents. In particular, it had noted the broadly worded definition of extremism in the Xinjiang Regulation on Deradicalization (XRD), supported by indicators (“primary expressions of radicalization”) that might otherwise be construed as matters of personal choice and legitimate religious practice. It had noted the extensive digital and personal surveillance apparatus in Xinjiang and the regulatory potential for administrative detention of suspected extremists. In its comments on the Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), it had further noted various indicators suggesting the presence of a “labour transfer policy” using measures severely restricting the free choice of employment based on the Government’s references to significant numbers of “surplus rural labour” being “relocated” to industrial and agricultural employment sites located inside and outside Xinjiang under “structured conditions” of “labour management”. In this context, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged, both in law and in practice, to amend national and regional regulatory provisions with a view to revising its deradicalization and employment policies in a manner that does not cause ethnic and religious minorities to fall victim to forced or compulsory labour.

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Vulnerable situation of foreign migrants with regard to the exaction of forced labour. The Committee notes a report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR, 2024) highlighting several ILO forced labour indicators suggesting forced labour practices involving overseas workers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including in China. The report refers to DPRK nationals working overseas in a coercive and exploitative environment buttressed by the threat of repatriation if they do not perform well enough or commit infractions. Also in 2024, various mandates of the UN Human Rights Council requested further information about investigations into the situation of girls and women from the DPRK that have been trafficked for the purposes of forced marriage, sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude. The Committee recalls that ratifying States must suppress all forms of forced labour occurring within their territory or jurisdiction. The Committee requests the Government to undertake efforts to prevent foreign migrants from falling victim to abusive practices and conditions that amount to the exaction of forced labour and to ensure their access to justice and remedies. The Committee also requests the Government to supply information on the number of identified victims of abusive practices among migrant workers, and on the number of investigations, prosecutions and penalties imposed on the perpetrators.

The Committee is raising further questions in a request addressed directly to the Government, noting in particular that full application of the Convention requires legal and regulatory provisions adopted at all administrative levels (i.e. national, provincial, municipal, prefectural, county and township levels) to be in accordance with the provisions of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2025.]