Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Botswana (Ratification: 1997)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no reply to previous comments. It hopes that the next report will include full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply, with its next report, copies of the following legislation: Prison Regulations and any other provisions governing the work of prisoners; the Defence Force Act and other Acts governing disciplined forces; legislation concerning a state of emergency. The Committee also requests the Government to provide additional information on the following points.

Article 2(2)(a) of the Convention. Please indicate what guarantees are provided to ensure that services exacted for military purposes are used for purely military ends. Please also supply copies of provisions governing alternative (non-military) service in case of persons who have conscientious objections to service as members of a naval, military or air force, to which reference is made in article 6(3)(c) of the Constitution and section 2(1) of the Employment Act. Please indicate any provisions applicable to military officers and other career military servicemen, as regards their right to leave the service, in time of peace, at their own request, either at certain reasonable intervals or by means of notice of reasonable length.

Article 2(2)(c). The Committee has noted from article 6(3)(a) of the Constitution and from the definition of "forced labour" given in section 2(1) of the Employment Act that the expression "forced labour" does not include any labour required in consequence of the sentence or order of a court. The Committee recalls that, according to Article 2(2)(c), work can only be exacted from a person as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law. It refers to the explanations in paragraph 94 of its 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour, in which it pointed out that this provision aims at ensuring that penal labour will not be imposed unless the guarantees laid down in the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations are observed, such as the presumption of innocence, equality before the law, regularity and impartiality of proceedings, independence and impartiality of courts, guarantees necessary for defence, clear definition of the offence and non-retroactivity of penal law. The Committee requests the Government to clarify the meaning and the scope of an "order of a court" (as opposed to a sentence in criminal proceedings), under which the exaction of forced labour may be required, supplying sample copies of relevant orders, and to provide information on measures taken or envisaged to ensure the observance of the Convention on this point.

Article 2(2)(b) and (e). The Committee has noted from article 6(3)(e) of the Constitution and from the definition of "forced labour" given in section 2(1) of the Employment Act that the expression "forced labour" does not include any labour reasonably required as part of reasonable and normal communal or other civic obligations. Please describe such "normal communal and other civic obligations" and supply copies of relevant provisions.