Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

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

Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Idleness, active population and compulsory activities. For many years, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to formally repeal certain provisions of the national legislation which are contrary to the Convention inasmuch as they constitute a direct or indirect compulsion to work:

–      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-préfecture 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.

In its latest report, the Government indicates that it has decided to hold an inter-ministerial meeting with a view to sensitizing the ministers who initiated these texts about the necessity of repealing them. For practical reasons, this meeting could not be organized; nevertheless, the Labour Administration would spare no effort to bring about the repeal of the aforementioned texts. The Committee takes note of this information. This matter has been the subject of its comments for many years and the Committee expresses the firm hope that the inter-ministerial meeting to which the Government refers will very soon be held, and that it will lead to concrete proposals for the repeal of these texts, which are contrary to the Convention and which, although having fallen into disuse, remain in the national legislative scheme.