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

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Central African Republic (Ratification: 1960)

1. Freedom to leave the service of the State. With reference to its previous comments and the Government’s statements on this point, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide copies of the provisions of the national legislation under which career members of the armed services may leave the service in time of peace.

2. Article 25 of the Convention. Application of adequate penalties. The Committee notes that, under section 228 of the Labour Code, any person who is in violation of section 4 of the above Code, which prohibits recourse to forced or compulsory labour, is liable to a fine of from 5,000 to 50,000 francs and a sentence of imprisonment of between six days and three months, or to one of these two penalties alone. Noting that under this provision the exaction of forced labour may be penalized merely by a fine, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the penal nature of the sanctions required by Article 25 of the Convention. In this respect, the Committee notes, according to the information provided by the Central African delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in July 2004, that a reform of the Penal Code and the Code of Penal Procedure, which date from independence, has been under way since 2002 in cooperation with the United Nations Peace-Building Office in the Central African Republic (BUNOCA). The Committee requests the Government to provide fuller information on the process of reforming the penal legislation and, as appropriate, to provide copies of the texts adopted. It hopes that the Government will take advantage of this occasion to include in the Penal Code a provision laying down that the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour shall be punishable as a penal offence, in accordance with Article 25 of the Convention.

3. Trafficking of persons. Noting that the Government has provided no indications in reply to the information requested by the Committee in its general observation of 2000, the Committee requests it to refer to this observation and to provide information on the measures adopted with a view to preventing, repressing and punishing the trafficking of persons for the purposes of their exploitation and on the difficulties encountered by the public authorities in combating the phenomenon of trafficking.