E/C.12/GC/18 page 4 9. The International Labour Organization defines forced labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”.3 The Committee reaffirms the need for States parties to abolish, forbid and counter all forms of forced labour as enunciated in article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 5 of the Slavery Convention and article 8 of the ICCPR. 10. High unemployment and the lack of secure employment are causes that induce workers to seek employment in the informal sector of the economy. States parties must take the requisite measures, legislative or otherwise, to reduce to the fullest extent possible the number of workers outside the formal economy, workers who as a result of that situation have no protection. These measures would compel employers to respect labour legislation and declare their employees, thus enabling the latter to enjoy all the rights of workers, in particular those provided for in articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Covenant. These measures must reflect the fact that people living in an informal economy do so for the most part because of the need to survive, rather than as a matter of choice. Moreover, domestic and agricultural work must be properly regulated by national legislation so that domestic and agricultural workers enjoy the same level of protection as other workers. 11. ILO Convention No. 158 concerning Termination of Employment (1982) defines the lawfulness of dismissal in its article 4 and in particular imposes the requirement to provide valid grounds for dismissal as well as the right to legal and other redress in the case of unjustified dismissal. 12. The exercise of work in all its forms and at all levels requires the existence of the following interdependent and essential elements, implementation of which will depend on the conditions present in each State party: (a) Availability. States parties must have specialized services to assist and support individuals in order to enable them to identify and find available employment; (b) Accessibility. The labour market must be open to everyone under the jurisdiction of States parties.4 Accessibility comprises three dimensions: (i) Under its article 2, paragraph 2, and article 3, the Covenant prohibits any discrimination in access to and maintenance of employment on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, physical or mental disability, health status (including HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation, or civil, political, social or other status, which has the intention or effect of impairing or nullifying exercise of the right to work on a basis of equality. According to article 2 of ILO Convention No. 111, States parties should “declare and pursue a national policy designed to promote, by methods appropriate to national conditions and practice, equality of opportunity and treatment in respect of employment and occupation, with a view to eliminating any discrimination in respect thereof”. Many measures, such as most strategies and programmes designed to eliminate employment-related discrimination, as emphasized in paragraph 18 of general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, can be pursued with