The Vietnam National Assembly (NA) on June 8 ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Convention No.105 on the abolition of forced labor, VnExpress reported.

With 458/460 of National Assembly delegates present voting yes to the ratification of Convention No.105, Vietnam will apply all contents of the convention.

National Assembly delegates vote at the ratification session of ILO Convention No.105. Photo: Hoang Phong

The Vietnamese government will be responsible for its implementation and dissemination among the people and businesses.

Chairman of the NA’s External Affairs Committee Nguyen Van Giau said that most of the deputies agreed with the need for the adoption of the convention which is consistent with the Party and State’s policy on renovation and international integration.

“The convention adherence at this moment is suitable for the process of perfecting the market economic institution of Vietnam and matches the national interest and the Party and State’s consistent policy on ensuring human rights, civil rights and non-acceptance of forced labor,” Giau said.

According to the ILO, forced labor refers to situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation or by more subtle means such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities.

Convention 105 on the abolition of forced labor was adopted by the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 25, 1957. It is one of the two ILO conventions against forced labor, along with Convention 29, to which Vietnam has been a party since 2007.

The ILO has eight core conventions, covering four key areas namely freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labor, discrimination, and child labor.

ILO’s data in 2017 showed that of the 24.9 million victims of forced labor around the world, 16 million people were exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture, 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation and four million people in forced labor imposed by state authorities.