Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Gabon (Ratification: 1961)

1. The Committee notes the assurances given by the Government that measures undertaken to obtain the statistical data requested on the participation of women in various courses provided by training, further training and retraining institutions covered by sections 98 to 103 of the new Labour Code have not yet taken effect, but will be forwarded to the Committee as soon as they become available.

2. The Committee notes with interest the statistical data on employed persons, disaggregated by sex and national extraction, compiled from the general census of population and habitat carried out in July 1993, from which it emerges that: (a) fewer than 10 per cent of women are employed in top- or medium-level positions in the public or private sector; (b) more than 60 per cent of working women in 1993 were employed in the agricultural sector and, in particular, in subsistence farming; (c) the remaining 30 per cent are mainly employed as office workers, cashiers and unskilled workers (in practice, in services and as street traders). In light of these statistics, the Committee reiterates its request for a copy of the national report submitted to the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995, and requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to increase the participation of women in public and private sector employment, and not only in posts and occupations traditionally held by women, which are generally of a low level of skill and responsibility, but also in technical and industrial jobs, managerial posts and positions of responsibility.

3. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in respect of "Gabonization" of positions. In this respect, the Committee is bound to emphasize that, while the Convention does not prohibit discrimination in occupation and employment on grounds of nationality, it does prohibit discrimination made on the basis of national extraction. The provisions of Convention No. 111 clearly prohibit distinctions made between citizens of the same country in respect of birthplace or national extraction. The Committee, therefore, requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that the policy of "Gabonization" of employment which has been implemented does not indirectly result, in practice, in discrimination in employment and occupation, based on national extraction.