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

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Côte d'Ivoire (Ratification: 1999)

Effective implementation of the provisions of the Convention. The Committee notes the comments from the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d’Ivoire (CGECI) which were forwarded to the Government in January 2011. The CGECI states that it has not been involved in the examination of the draft concerning the composition, structure and operation of the Technical Committee on Occupational Guidance and Reclassification (COTOREP) and the draft concerning the establishment, structure and operation of the fund for the promotion and integration of persons with disabilities. The CGECI also indicates that it is not opposed to the recruitment of persons with disabilities and invites the Government to develop incentives for increasing such recruitment by enterprises in the private sector. The Government indicated in its previous report that eight draft decrees had been prepared and submitted for signature to enable the application of the Framework Act of 10 November 1998 in favour of persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to provide information in its next report on the progress achieved in the effective implementation of the draft decrees implementing the Framework Act of 10 November 1998, in order to ensure effective application of the provisions of the Convention.

Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. Adoption and periodic review of a national policy on vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. The Government previously indicated that the document concerning the national policy for persons with disabilities had been drawn up, finalized and was awaiting validation before its adoption and implementation. The Committee requests the Government to supply information in its next report on the progress achieved with regard to the implementation of the document on the national policy for persons with disabilities. It also requests the Government to provide details of vocational rehabilitation and employment programmes and their results, in terms of employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. The Committee trusts that the Government will be in a position in its next report to provide relevant, up-to-date information on the application of the Convention in practice, including, for example, statistics disaggregated by sex, extracts from reports, studies and inquiries concerning the matters covered by the Convention (Part V of the report form).

Article 4. Equality of opportunities and treatment. The Government previously indicated that the adoption of the decree concerning employment for persons with disabilities in relation to Framework Act No. 98-594 (section 14) might represent the beginning of a solution, inasmuch as it stipulates that wages for the recipients of compulsory employment measures may not be less than those resulting from legal or regulatory provisions or from the collective agreement or accord. However, where the occupational output of the persons concerned is manifestly reduced, reductions in wages may be authorized according to conditions laid down by regulation. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether special positive measures are envisaged, especially in the private sector, to ensure equality of opportunity between workers with disabilities and other workers. It hopes that the Government will be in a position to indicate how equality of treatment is ensured, particularly regarding wages for persons with disabilities and other workers, by providing specific information on any regulation implementing section 14 of the abovementioned Decree, particularly its part dealing with exemptions.

Article 5. Consultation of the social partners. The Government previously indicated that since the establishment in 2003 of the Directorate for the Promotion of Persons with Disabilities (DPPH), cooperation with the CGECI and support structures for persons with disabilities had improved substantially. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the manner in which the representative employers’ and workers’ organizations participate in the consultations required by the Convention. It also requests the Government to indicate whether the representative organizations of or for disabled persons are consulted in practice regarding the implementation of a vocational rehabilitation and employment policy for persons with disabilities.

Article 8. Services in rural areas. The Government previously indicated that the community rehabilitation programme in seven localities was effective from 1990 to 1996 but since then had been discontinued for lack of funds and would resume in 2011. The Committee requests the Government to supply information in its next report on the progress achieved with regard to the revival of the community rehabilitation programme and to describe the measures taken in the context of this programme to promote the establishment and development of vocational rehabilitation and employment services for persons with disabilities in rural areas and remote communities.

Article 9. Training of suitably qualified staff. The Government previously indicated that the task of training trainers had been assigned to the National Social Training Institute (INFS); 225 specialist instructors and 61 special education teachers had been trained in methods and techniques for the care of persons with disabilities. The Government also stated that, with regard to in-service training for social workers, only the reinforcement of staff capacities in the areas of sign language and Braille script at the Ivorian School for the Deaf (ECIS) and the Ivorian National Institute for the Blind (INIPA) was taken care of by the DPPH. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the measures taken to ensure that suitably qualified vocational rehabilitation staff are made available to all persons with disabilities.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2013.]