Abolition of Forced Labour
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Category: Human Rights
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Iron Felix
Description: Deploring the practice of forced labour, including bonded labour, debt-servitude and other forms of unfree labour, and
Believing that all persons have the right to leave their employment at any time and to be free from threats, violence or coercion from their employer,
The United Nations
1. Abolishes the practice of forced labour in all UN member nations;
2. Defines "forced labour" as a situation in which persons are required to enter jobs by any means other than freely agreed contracts or to perform work against their will, under coercion or threat of extreme hardship to themselves or their families, including violence or detention;
3. Notes that for the purpose of this resolution the term 'coercion' shall be defined as excluding
a. the use of legal systems to enforce contracts;
b. the withdrawal of state-paid allowances from unemployed persons who refuse work that is offered to them and that they are capable of performing;
4. Accepts that nations may allow work to be compelled from
a. Persons performing either military service or alternative national service, as required by law;
b. Persons who are sentenced to such labour as a punishment for crimes;
c. Prisoners of War, and civilians interned during wartime, as allowed under international law;
5. Declares that no person may be committed to a contract against his or her will, except as clause #4 allows. Additionally, in the case of minors who are legally old enough to work the consent of a parent or other legal guardian may be required as well as the consent of the child itself;
6. Declares that any person who is currently bound to an employer because of any hereditary arrangement rather than by his or her own consent has the right to leave that employer's service. Persons willing to remain in such service are entitled to have a fair contract drawn up under binding independent arbitration;
7. Declares that all persons have the right to leave their jobs at any time unless required, by a stated condition of employment or a contract freely entered into, to give specific and reasonable prior notice of abandoning the position. Failure to provide such notice may release the employer from any contractual or similar obligations;
8. Declares that the specified duration of a contract of employment may only be extended or shortened by the freely given consent of both parties, or by an order from a relevant court;
9. Declares that all persons have the right to be free from violence, threats of violence, enforced indebtedness, and other forms of undue coercion by their employers;
10. Prohibits all other forms of labour which would meet the definition of forced labour as stated in this resolution.
Voting Ends: Tue Jan 8 2008
