Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Sao Tome and Principe (Ratification: 1982)

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:

1. The Committee notes that the Government's very brief report does not reply to the points raised by the Committee in its previous comments. However, it notes with interest that since the Government's last report (1991), texts relating to the subject of the Convention have been adopted: Decree No. 69/95 of 31 December 1995 issuing the Statute of the Labour Inspectorate and -- on vocational training -- Decree No. 28/92 of 10 September 1992 creating a Youth Intensive Training Programme, and the Ordinance of 27 May 1996 of the Ministry of Labour, Vocational Training and Social Security establishing the Vocational Retraining Task Force. The Committee notes that section 8 of Decree No. 69/95 establishes that labour inspectors provide education and guidance to employers and workers, and asks the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that their education and guidance activities include the promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation as laid down in the Convention, and to provide a copy of the Inspectorate's annual report. With regard to the Youth Intensive Training Programme and the Vocational Retraining Task Force, the Committee would appreciate information on the measures taken by the Government to ensure that access to these programmes is free of all discrimination based on the seven grounds banned by the Convention, particularly sex. In this connection, it asks the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that the range of occupations available to women is broad and, above all, free of considerations based on stereotypes and archaic attitudes according to which, for example, certain trades or occupations are reserved for a particular sex (for more details, please refer to paragraph 75 of the 1996 Special Survey on equality in employment and occupation).

2. Lastly, the Committee again asks the Government to provide statistics on (a) the proportion of women in the active population and their distribution by sector of activity and level of qualification; and (b) the number of women employed in the public administration (including women in high-level posts) and their percentage as compared to men.