Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1934)

By virtue of Article 2, paragraph 2(c), of the Convention, work may only be exacted as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law. The Committee notes with satisfaction that Decree No. 559, which empowered the police to impose penalties involving compulsory labour, was explicitly repealed by Act No. 124 of July 1991 to reform penal procedures.

With reference to the application of this Article of the Convention, the Committee has been referring for many years to the need to delete from the Police Regulations Chapters XV and XVI of Title III and clause 22 of section 521, which have already been repealed by the 1944 Labour Code, and the need to repeal or amend sections 29, 32 to 38, 522(8), 533(3)(6)(20) and (24), 545(13) and 575 of the Police Regulations, under which sentences involving compulsory labour can be imposed by decision of police magistrates; and also the Act of 17 July 1948 on the powers of police magistrates, who are officials of the Executive, to pronounce sentences involving compulsory labour. The Committee hopes that the Government will take the necessary measures without delay to ensure that the national legislation is brought formally into conformity with the Convention and thereby remove any doubts as to the legislation which is actually enforced.