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Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Guinea (RATIFICATION: 1960)

Article 1(1)(a) and (b) of the Convention. Anti-discrimination legislation. Civil service. In its previous comment, the Committee underlined that Act No. L/2014/072/CNT issuing the Labour Code of 2014 excludes public officials from its scope of application (section 2) and that section 11 of Act No. L/2001/028/AN of 31 December 2001 issuing the Civil Servants Regulations only prohibits discrimination between officials on the basis of political, trade union, philosophical or religious views, and on the basis of sex or ethnic origin. The Committee has been underlining in its comments since 1990 that the legal protection of public officials is inadequate both regarding the grounds of discrimination, since it does not cover discrimination based on race, colour, national extraction and social origin, and regarding the scope of application, as recruitment is not covered. The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no information concerning the protection of public officials from discrimination, and requests the Government to take the necessary steps, in the very near future, to amend section 11 of Act No. L/2001/028/AN issuing the Civil Servants Regulations, so as to ensure that civil servants and applicants to a post in the public service are effectively protected against any direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of at least the seven grounds of discrimination listed in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. The Government is requested to provide information on any measures taken in this regard and on any complaint mechanism enabling applicants for employment in the civil service to lodge an appeal if they consider that they have suffered discrimination during recruitment.

Discrimination on the basis of sex. Sexual harassment. The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no information on sexual harassment. In that regard, it notes the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which emphasize that “the number of cases of violence against women, particularly […] sexual violence, remains very high” (E/C.12/GIN/CO/1, 30 March 2020, paragraph 20). The Committee again requests the Government to take measures to: (i) prevent sexual harassment in employment and occupation, such as awareness-raising campaigns (for example, by radio or through other media) or reinforcing prevention activities by the labour inspectorate in this area; and (ii) inform workers, employers and their respective organizations of their rights and obligations in this area. It requests the Government to provide information on any measures adopted for this purpose. The Government is once again requested to consider whether complaint and appeal mechanisms established at the national and enterprise levels are sufficiently accessible to complainants and whether they allow perpetrators of sexual harassment to be sanctioned. The Government is requested to provide information, as the case may be, on results obtained and the follow-up measures envisaged.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.