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Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Mali (RATIFICATION: 1960)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Mali (RATIFICATION: 2016)

1. Freedom of state employees to leave the service. The Committee noted that, by virtue of section 31 of Ordinance No. 72/CMLN of 31 December 1969 to issue the new conditions of service of the army of Mali, the resignation of career officers must be accepted by the Head of State.

Referring to the general direct request of 1981 concerning the freedom of certain persons in the service of the State to terminate their employment, the Committee asked the Government to indicate the criteria adopted for accepting or refusing an application to resign submitted by career officers and to communicate the text of any regulation, or administrative instructions throwing light on the practice followed, including the text of any court decisions that may have been adopted on the matter.

The Committee notes the Government's statement that information concerning the criteria referred to in accepting or refusing applications to resign submitted by career officers, falls within the competence of the Ministry of National Defence and, consequently, may not be published.

The Committee refers to the explanation given in paragraphs 67 to 73 of its General Survey of 1979 on the Abolition of Forced Labour, in which it stressed that statutory provisions preventing termination of employment of indefinite duration by means of notice of reasonable length have the effect of turning a contractual relationship based on the will of the parties into service by compulsion of law and are therefore incompatible with the Convention. In paragraph 72, the Committee pointed out that the provisions relating to compulsory military service included in the Forced Labour Convention do not apply to career military service and may not be invoked to deprive persons who have voluntarily entered into an engagement of the right to leave the service in peacetime within a reasonable period, either at specified intervals, or with previous notice.

The Committee requests the Government to provide only those provisions which concern the termination of service of career officers and to supply information on the criteria referred to in accepting or refusing resignation.

2. In its previous comments, the Committee referred to the provisions in laws and regulations governing the civic service set up by Act No. 60-15/AL-RS of 11 June 1960. The Committee observed that, by virtue of Decree No. 88/PG-RM of 20 July 1966, the institutional framework of the civic service to which young persons recognised to be fit for armed service but not called up may be assigned is the rural animation centre, which, under section 2, follows the same aims as those previously attributed, in particular, to the civic service camps. The Committee asks the Government to provide the texts that concern recruitment in the rural animation centres.

In its report, the Government indicates that the provisions concerning recruitment in the rural animation centres are, for the most part, contained in the texts concerning the establishment, organisation and operation of rural animation (Decrees Nos. 41/CMLN of 25 September 1974 and 193/PG-RM of 12 December 1974).

The Committee had already pointed out that Ordinance No. 41/CMLN of 25 September 1974 relates to the establishment and functions of a national directorate of training and rural animation under the Ministry of Rural Development. Decree No. 193/PG-RM of 12 December 1974 concerns the organisation and operation of the National Directorate of Rural Animation. Neither of the above texts contains provisions on recruitment in the rural animation centres.

The Committee takes note of the Government's statement that mixed centres receive couples on a voluntary basis and that the ordinary rural animation centres receive young people who are single.

The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on the activities of the rural animation centres and to supply the texts which establish the voluntary nature of participation in such centres.