Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Burundi (Ratification: 1963)

1. Article 1(a) of the Convention. Since a number of years, the Committee noted that the Government has been referring to a possibility of revising Ministerial Order No. 100/325 of 15 November 1963 concerning the organization of prison labour in order to explicitly exclude political prisoners from its scope. The Government indicates in its latest report of November 2001 that the consultations conducted on this subject have been suspended as a result of the war. In the meantime, a notion of "political prisoners" is being discussed at the political level and the result of the debate on this subject should be awaited. The Committee recalls that Article 1(a) of the Convention prohibits the exaction of forced or compulsory labour, including compulsory prison labour, as a sanction against persons who held or expressed certain political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system. It therefore requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information on the measures taken to ensure that persons protected by this provision of the Convention are not subject to compulsory prison labour.

2. Article 1(d). Since many years, the Committee referred to section 231 of the Labour Code, which provides that restrictions imposed on the right to strike to ensure the functioning of vital sectors of the economy may be enforceable with sanctions of penal servitude (sections 313 and 320 of the Labour Code). The Committee notes that, following the adoption of Law-Decree No. 1/037 of 7 July 1993, the Labour Code has been revised. It notes with interest that violation of the Labour Code provisions concerning the right to strike does not involve penal sanctions any more. However, the Committee notes that, with regard to the application of the Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87), the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) indicated that a number of trade unions’ leaders have been imprisoned for having organized strikes. It requests the Government to indicate the grounds for their imprisonment and to supply copies of the relevant courts decisions.