China ratifies international
conventions on forced labor

BEIJING (TASS): The Chinese authorities have ratified the International Labor Organization Convention No. 29 on Forced or Compulsory Labor and Convention No. 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labor. The decision was made by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Wednesday.
According to Convention No. 29, adopted in 1930, the party that ratifies it undertakes to abolish the use of forced or compulsory labor in all its forms as soon as possible.
Convention No. 105, adopted in 1957, supplements and clarifies a number of provisions of Convention No. 29. In particular, it involves the abolition of forced or compulsory labor used as a means of political influence, education or punishment for the presence of ideological beliefs that are opposed to the established political, social or economic system. In addition, the 1957 convention obliges the ratifying party to renounce forced labor “as a measure of discrimination on grounds of race, social or national origin or religion”.
Western states accuse the PRC of creating a network of correctional camps, where up to 1 million Uyghurs can allegedly be forcibly detained, and using the labor of the people there. The Chinese authorities have repeatedly denied the information about the creation of a network of penitentiary institutions in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.