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

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report contains no reply to previous comments. It hopes that the next report will include full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Repetition

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. 1. Forced labour in cases of vagrancy. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that pursuant to the Decree on vagrancy and begging of 23 May 1896 persons may be arrested, judged by a court and convicted of vagrancy or of begging. The court may decide to put them at the Government’s disposal for a certain period by placing them in an establishment. Able-bodied persons thus placed are forced to work in roadworks, agriculture, maintenance, cleaning, buildings and road construction, or to perform other general interest services (section 7 of the General Government Order of 26 May 1913). The Committee recalled that the laws which oblige all able-bodied citizens to be gainfully employed under the menace of imposition of penal sanctions are incompatible with the Convention, and that the laws, which define vagrancy in such general terms that they may serve directly or indirectly as a means of forcing persons to work, should be amended so that penal sanctions are limited to the cases where the public order is disturbed by an offender who refrains from working, but who is also engaged in any unlawful activity as a means of subsistence. The Committee noted the Government’s indication that vagrancy is an offence exclusively related to juvenile justice, and that begging only constitutes an offence to the extent it harms other people. The Committee trusts that the Government will not fail to take the necessary measures to repeal the abovementioned legislation which allows putting vagrants who do not disturb public order at the disposal of the Government, which may, according to the above explained, entail the forced exaction of labour.

2. Possibility for judges to resign. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that under section 38 of Legislative Ordinance No. 88-056 of 29 September 1988 concerning the status of judges, their resignations must be accepted by the President of the Republic. Since the Government has communicated no information on this matter, the Committee once again requests the Government to clarify whether the President could, in practice, refuse to accept a resignation and, if so, for what reasons.

3. “Pygmies” as victims of forced labour. In its previous comments, the Committee referred to the Concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (document CERD/C/COD/CO/15 dated 17 August 2007). It noted the Committee’s particular concern in its reports about the situation of “Pygmies” who are sometimes subjected to forced labour. The Committee also noted that in its concluding observations concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed its concern that “Pygmies continue to suffer extreme forms of societal marginalization in particular with regard to their access to identity documents, education, health and labour …” (document E/C.12/COD/CO/4 of 16 December 2009). The Committee observes that the Government has not provided any information on the situation of this people. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures adopted to combat the social marginalization of “Pygmies” with a view to ensuring that their situation of social vulnerability does not result in them becoming victims of forced labour.