Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 83rd ILC session (1996)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Cameroon (Ratification: 1988)

1. The Committee notes that in response to its previous comments concerning the employment of persons who are justifiably suspected of, or engaged in, activities prejudicial to the security of the State (Article 4 of the Convention), the Government indicates that there are no legislative measures regulating the employment of such persons but that their activities are punished under penal law. None the less, employees who consider they had been unjustly dismissed following such activities have access to the successive appeal procedures recognized in the Labour Code and by Order No. 72-6 of 26 August 1972, providing for the organization of the Supreme Court. The Committee requests the Government to communicate to it in future reports information on the appeals lodged on this basis and a copy of judgements handed down in this matter.

2. The Committee notes, however, that the Government's report does not contain the information requested in points 1 and 2 of its previous direct request, which read as follows:

It notes that, according to the Preamble to the national Constitution, all human beings, without any distinction as to race, religion, sex, or creed, have inalienable and sacred rights, including the right to work, and that no one may be subjected to harassment because of his extraction, or his religious, philosophical or political opinions or beliefs, subject to respect for the public order. It notes, however, that the other grounds of discrimination expressly mentioned in the Convention - colour, national extraction and social origin - are not included in the Constitution. It also notes that the definition of the term "worker" contained in section 1(2) of Act No. 92/007 of 14 August 1992 issuing the Labour Code refers only to "sex and nationality" as grounds on which discrimination is prohibited, and that the other grounds laid down in the Convention are not mentioned in the Labour Code. Furthermore, in the Conditions of Service of the Public Service (section 5 of Decree No. 74-138 of 18 February 1984), discrimination in respect of access to public sector jobs is prohibited only on grounds of sex.

The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate how the national policy designed to promote equality of opportunity and treatment in respect of employment and occupation with a view to eliminating all distinctions, exclusions or preferences on the grounds referred to in Article 1, paragraph 1(a), of the Convention has been declared, and to describe the general methods by which this policy is being implemented in respect of access to vocational training, access to employment, and terms and conditions of employment, in both the public and private sectors, in accordance with Article 2 of the Convention.

It therefore trusts that the Government will not fail to supply with its next report the detailed information requested for a number of years in its previous direct requests.