Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Sao Tome and Principe (Ratification: 2005)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Article 2, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a), of the Convention. Work exacted in virtue of compulsory military service laws. The Committee notes that article 64(2) of the Constitution provides that all citizens have the duty to perform their military service under the terms envisaged by the law. The Committee requests the Government to provide a copy of the Act regulating compulsory military service with its next report.

Article 2, paragraph 2, subparagraph (c). Work exacted as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the work which may be imposed on persons convicted to a sentence of imprisonment. Please indicate whether such work is compulsory and describe the various arrangements through which prison work may be organized, with an indication in particular of whether convicted persons may perform such work for the benefit of private entities.

Furthermore, it appears, according to the information available to the Committee, that several legislative texts were adopted in 2003 respecting criminal offences, including an Act respecting the implementation of sentences and imprisonment (Act No. 3/2003) and an Act respecting the performance of work for the benefit of the community (Act No. 5/2003). The Committee requests the Government to provide copies of these Acts. The Committee also has become aware of the fact that, in the context of the process of revising the Penal Code and the Code of Penal Procedure that has been under way since 2003, draft codes have been prepared. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether this process has been completed and, if so, if it would provide copies of the new Penal Code and Code of Penal Procedure.

Article 2, paragraph 2, subparagraph (d). Work exacted in cases of emergency. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether special legislation on the state of emergency and the state of siege has been adopted and, if so, to provide a copy.