Forced Labour is prohibited under the Constitution and is a punishable offence under the Criminal Code and Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Persons Proclamation No. 1178/2020”. Any person who holds another person in slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or debt bondages; exploited in removing organs or prostitution or other forms of sexual activities of another person; engages another person in forced labor or service, begging or criminal act, forced marriage, surrogacy, or exploited children in labor, or commit exploitation similar to these acts shall be punishable with Seven years to Fifteen years of rigorous imprisonment and fine from Twenty Thousand to One Hundred Thousand Birr.  According to the relevant Ethiopian law “Slavery” is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised and   “Servitude” is the conditions or the obligations to work or to render services from which the person cannot escape, prevent or alter; 

Article 603(1)(a) of the criminal code also criminalizes forced labor. Accordingly, If a person compels another by intimidation, violence, fraud or any other unlawful means to accept a particular employment or particular conditions of employment, or to refuse or withhold his labour, with the object of imposing on an employer by force the acceptance or modification of terms of employment is punishable, upon complaint, with simple imprisonment at least three months, or fine.