forced labor
forced labor. Int’l law. Work exacted from a person under threat of penalty; work for which a person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily. • Under the U.N. Convention on Civil and Political Rights (article 8), exemptions from this definition include (1) penalties imposed by a court, (2) compulsory military service, (3) action taken in an emergency, (4) normal civil obligations, and (5) minor communal services. — Also termed compulsory labor.