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

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Madagascar (Ratification: 2007)

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government concerning the disciplinary sanctions applicable to workers, and the copy of the model internal rules.

Article 1(b) of the Convention. Imposition of forced labour as a method of mobilizing and using labour for the purposes of economic development. In its previous direct request, the Committee emphasized that national service, as established in Ordinance No. 78-002 of 16 February 1978 setting forth general principles of national service, is incompatible with the Convention. Under the terms of section 2 of the Ordinance, all Malagasies are bound by the duty of national service defined as compulsory participation in national defence and in the economic and social development of the country. This compulsory service, which puts citizens at the effective service of the defence or of development, concerns citizens of both sexes for a maximum period of two years and may be carried out up to the age of 35. The Committee recalled that programmes involving the compulsory participation of young persons in the context of military service and, instead of such service, in activities for the development of their country, are incompatible with Article 1(b) of the Convention, which prohibits the use of compulsory labour as a method of mobilizing labour for the purposes of economic development.

In its last report, the Government indicates that Ordinance No. 78-002 is no longer applied and that it will be reviewed. It adds that it will provide information on the measures adopted for this purpose, once the crisis affecting the country has passed. The Committee notes this information and hopes that the Government will be in a position to provide information, in its next report, on the progress achieved in the process of revising the above Ordinance and that, in the context of this process, due account will be taken of the Committee’s comments with a view to bringing the legislation on national service into conformity with the Convention.