Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Maternity Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3) - Central African Republic (Ratification: 1964)

New legislative framework. The Committee notes the adoption of Act No. 009.004 of 29 January 2009 issuing the new Labour Code. It observes that the provisions of the Act relating to maternity protection (sections 252–258) are in conformity with the requirements of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether the regulations in force under the previous Labour Code, such as General Decree No. 3759 of 25 November 1954 concerning the work of pregnant women, remain in force with amendments where necessary.

Article 3(c) of the Convention. Free health care. According to the 2010 United Nations report monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), in the Central African Republic the maternal mortality ratio is among the highest in the world, at 540 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006. Only 53 per cent of births are attended by qualified health-care staff. The aggravating factors referred to by the report include: the low level of education of women; low levels of household income limiting access to health care during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period; inadequate health-care infrastructure and equipment with uneven distribution at the expense of rural areas; and insufficient numbers of qualified and specialist health-care staff with a serious imbalance to the disadvantage of the provinces (four or five gynaecologists for the whole country, all of them in the capital).

The Committee notes that the challenges facing the country include: strengthening existing health-care services (recruitment and further training of health-care personnel and their deployment throughout the country); achieving free health care in the medium term for women during childbirth and for complications arising out of pregnancy; and reinforcing the capacity of traditional midwives to detect and refer childbirth-related emergencies in a timely manner. Recalling that women workers covered by the Convention shall be entitled to free attendance by a doctor or certified midwife, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated to significantly reduce the maternal mortality ratio and provide information in its next report on progress made in this regard.