Since 1962 state-sponsored forced labor has been a persistent and daily problem for the people of Burma. The United Nations estimated in 1999 that the military junta compels over 800,000 Burmese into forced labor. In Burma this generally relates to labor-intensive programs like agriculture production and road projects for military units, however it also includes sexual and military services. While the international community has taken action to counter these crimes in accordance with the Forced Labor Convention of 1930 and the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention of 1957, working with the military regime has made progress difficult.

One of the main stumbling blocks to progress is that the highest prevalence of forced labor is found in the poorer or most remote areas of Burma, where the international community has little to no access. Eyewitness accounts have detailed the requisitioning of villages by local authorities to farm lands confiscated by the state, provide sentry duties for military units, and work on road, bridge, railroad, and military barrack construction. Other accounts have provided testimony of quota systems used for year round service in the villages. Although forced labor is officially illegal, imprisonment is used as the primary threat for noncompliance with various forms of torture and even killings as alternate modes of forced cooperation.

In their 2005 Global Report the International Labor Organization determined that effective progress against forced labor in Burma would be impossible given the climate of repression and the absence of a political will to clamp down on the military and local authorities prospering from the forced labor. Watch Witness’ Video Entrenched Abuse: Forced Labor in Burma.

In 1998, ILO’s Commission of Inquiry reported that there is abundant evidence of pervasive use of forced labor on the civilian population, and the obligation to suppress such practice is violated in national law and actual practice in a “widespread and systematic manner.”

Tragically, the regime remains unchanged as of 2010 in their use of and profit from forced labor. The ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Conventions and Recommendations in 2007 evaluated Burma’s status on forced labor. Rather than reporting improvements, the Committee distinguished Burma as “one extremely serious case of flagrant violation of the Convention” and that there is overwhelming condemnation of the authorities’ actions over the last few decades from the Committee on Application of Standards. Furthermore, the report emphasized the regime’s failure to comply with the 1998 Commission of Inquiry.

Clearly frustrated at the succession of flagrant breeches with the Convention, the ILO Governing Body directed that all relevant ILO documentation be submitted to the ICJ prosecutor and UNSC in 2006. Such a step was taken after the ILO used all of its constitutional authority to seek compliance by Burma with its international obligations to stop the use of forced labor, including a decision in 2000 to ask all ILO members to take whatever sanctions they could to compel Burma’s compliance – to no avail.