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

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

Since 1966, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to repeal certain provisions of the national legislation under which forced or compulsory labour could be exacted and which are therefore contrary to the Convention:

-  Ordinance No. 66/004 of 8 January 1966 with respect to the suppression of idleness, as amended by Ordinance No. 72/083 of 18 October 1972, under which any able-bodied person aged between 18 and 55 years who cannot prove that she or he is engaged in a normal activity providing for her or his subsistence or that she or he is engaged in studies is considered to be idle and liable to a penalty of between one and three years of imprisonment;

-  Ordinance No. 66/038 of June 1966 respecting the supervision of the active population, under which any person aged between 18 and 55 years who cannot justify belonging to one of the eight categories of the active population shall be called up to cultivate land designated by the administrative authorities and shall also be considered a vagabond if apprehended outside her or his sous-prefecture of origin and shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment;

-  Ordinance No. 75/005 of 5 January 1975 obliging all citizens to provide proof of the exercise of a commercial, agricultural or pastoral activity and making persons in violation of this provision liable to the most severe penalties; and

-  section 28 of Act No. 60/109 of 27 June 1960 with respect to the development of the rural economy, under which minimum surfaces for cultivation are to be established for each rural community.

The Government has indicated on several occasions that these texts are obsolete and are no longer applied in practice and that texts to repeal them were under preparation. In its latest report, the Government once again indicates that, even if they have not been explicitly repealed, the legal texts referred to by the Committee are no longer applied. As this matter has been the subject of its comments for many years, the Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures in the very near future to formally repeal the above texts so as to ensure legal certainty. In this respect, the Committee reminds the Government that it can have recourse to the technical assistance of the International Labour Office, which may help it to overcome the difficulties encountered in bringing its legislation into compliance with the Conventions on forced labour.