2. SAFETY, SECURITY AND DIGNITY FOR ALL 2.6. SLAVERY RELEVANT RULES: SLAVERY Rule 97 1. Prison labour must not be of an afflictive nature. 2. Prisoners shall not be held in slavery or servitude. 3. No prisoner shall be required to work for the personal or private benefit of any prison staff. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 2 109 74 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”.152 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also states that “[n]o one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be prohibited, no one shall be held in servitude and no one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour”.153 PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE 110 The International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, the adoption of which dates back to 1930, obliges signatory states to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period, but makes a few specific exemptions such as compulsory military service and “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”. The ILO Convention clarifies, that this is because “except in a few rare cases the prisoner works under compulsion. He cannot choose his employment as the free worker does, but must usually do whatever work is assigned to him. The conditions in which this work is carried out are fixed by unilateral decision of the State; the prisoner has no voice in the matter and cannot as a rule appeal to the courts if he is the victim of injustice.”154 111 The ILO Committee of Experts – the body charged with interpretation of ILO Conventions – has consistently required that there be objective and verifiable indicators that prisoners who work for private entities do so voluntarily. Specifically, the Committee has stated that Article 2(2)(c) of Convention 29 allows prisoners to work for private companies “only where prisoners worked in conditions approximating a free employment relationship”.155 Further, on balance, the “circumstances in which the prison labour is performed should not be so disproportionately lower than the free market that it could be characterized as exploitative”.156 152. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly resolution 217 A(III), 10 December 1948, Articles 1 and 4. 153. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI), 16 December 1966, Article 8. 154. Memorandum on Prison Labour, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Labour Review, Vol. XXV, 1932, pp. 313-314. 155. Eradication of forced labour, International Labour Organization (ILO), Forced Labour Convention, 15 February 2007, Chapter II, para. 116. 156. General Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, International Labour Organization Conference, 89th Session,, 2001, p. 46, para. 143 at www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/P/09661/09661(2001-89-1A).pdf. Guidance document on the Nelson Mandela Rules