The Forced Labour Convention was adopted in Geneva on 28 June 1930 by the International Labour Conference, 14th Session, opened on 10 June, the French and English texts being authentic. C29. Depositary: the Director-General of the International Labour Office. It is not C105 of 1957, which later complements five specified uses, nor the 2014 Protocol to C29. The ILO adoption formula is the register date.

Article 1: each Member which ratifies undertakes to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period. Article 2, at framework level, defines it as all work or service exacted under the menace of any penalty and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily, with legal exceptions: military service of a purely military character, normal civic obligations, work as a consequence of a court conviction under public supervision and not for private benefit, emergencies, and minor communal services. An operational handbook is not transcribed.

Article 4: the competent authority shall not impose or permit forced or compulsory labour for the benefit of private individuals, companies or associations. Article 25: the illegal exaction shall be punishable as a penal offence, with penalties that are really adequate and strictly enforced. Transitional articles on exceptional recourse are not described as procedure.

Article 27: ratifications shall be communicated to the Director-General. Article 28: it binds only Members whose ratifications have been registered; it comes into force twelve months after two ratifications have been registered; for any later Member, twelve months after its own registration. ILO/UNTS: 1 May 1932, UNTS 612, volume 39. Article 30: denunciation after ten years. Article 33: the French and English texts are authentic.

Cover: Centre William Rappard, the ILO headquarters of the conference period; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Forced Labour Convention; Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (ILO C29).