Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

Article 25 of the Convention. Penal sanctions for the exaction of forced or compulsory labour. Referring to its earlier comments, the Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that a new Penal Code is currently being drafted and that the Government is considering a possibility to revise certain definitions and to improve the existing legal framework, in particular, by imposing more severe punishments for serious offences, including that covered by section 128 of the present Penal Code (the illegal compulsion to act against a person’s will, which is applicable to punish the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour). The Committee hopes that, in the course of the revision of the Penal Code, particular attention will be given to the effective implementation of Article 25 of the Convention, which provides that “the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour shall be punishable as a penal offence”, and that “the penalties imposed by law are really adequate and are strictly enforced”, for example, by introducing a new provision punishing the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour. Pending the revision, the Committee again requests the Government to provide information on the application in practice of the abovementioned section 128 of the Penal Code currently in force, supplying sample copies of the relevant court decisions and indicating the penalties imposed.