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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE.

DRAFT CONVENTION CONCERNING FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR. The General Conference of the International Labour Organization of the League of Nations, having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Fourteenth Session on 10th 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 a draft international convention, adopts, this 28th day of June of the year 1930, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the members of the International Labour Organization, in accordance with the provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding parts of the other treaties of peace : — Article 1. Each member of the International Labour Organization which ratifies this Convention undertakes to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period. With a view to this complete suppression, recourse to forced or compulsory labour may be had, during the transitional period, for public purposes only and as an exceptional measure, subject to the conditions and guarantees hereinafter provided. 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 {orms without a further transitional period and the desirability of placing this question on the agenda of the Conference. Article 2. 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. 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 : (e) Minor communal services of a kind which, being performed by the members of the community in the direct interest of the said community, can therefore be considered as normal civic obligations incumbent upon the members of the community, provided that the members of the community or their direct representatives shall have the right to be consulted in regard to the need for such services. Article 3. For the purposes of this Convention the term " competent authority " shall mean either an authority of the metropolitan country or the highest central authority in the territory concerned. Article 4. The competent authority shall not impose or permit the imposition of forced or compulsory labour for the benefit of private individuals, companies, or associations. Where such forced or compulsory labour for the benefit of private individuals, companies, or associations exists at the date on which a member's ratification of this Convention is registered by the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, the member shall completely suppress such forced or compulsory labour from the date on which this Convention comes into force for that member.

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