Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Burundi (Ratification: 1963)

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. 1. Compulsory community development work. For a number of years, the Committee has noted that Act No. 1/016 of 20 April 2005, organizing municipal administration, has the objective of promoting the economic and social development of municipalities at both the individual level and on a collective and unified basis. The municipal council is responsible for determining the community development programme, monitoring its implementation and ensuring its evaluation. The Act also provides for regulations to be issued determining the organization, mechanisms and procedures for inter-municipal action. The Committee also noted the observations made by the Trade Union Confederation of Burundi (COSYBU) on several occasions (2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014) to the effect that community work is decided upon unilaterally without the population being consulted and that the police are mobilized to close the streets and accordingly prevent the population from moving during such work.

The Committee once again notes the observations made by the COSYBU, received in 2015, according to which the voluntary nature of participation in community work should be explicitly set out in law. The Committee notes with deep concern the absence of information in the Government’s report on this issue, which the Committee has been raising for a number of years. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary measures for the adoption of the text to implement Act No. 1/016 of 20 April 2005, organizing municipal administration, particularly with regard to participation in and the organization of community work, and to use this opportunity to ensure explicitly the voluntary nature of participation in such work. In this connection, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the procedures through which such work can be exacted from the population, and particularly the duration of the work carried out and the number of persons concerned.

2. Compulsory agricultural work. For many years, the Committee has been requesting the Government to take the necessary measures to bring several legal texts providing for compulsory participation in certain types of agricultural work into conformity with the Convention. It has emphasized the need to set out in law the voluntary nature of agricultural work resulting from obligations relating to the conservation and utilization of the land and the obligation to create and maintain minimum areas for cultivation (Ordinances Nos 710/275 and 710/276 of 25 October 1979), and to formally repeal certain texts on compulsory cultivation, portering and public works (the Decree of 14 July 1952, Ordinance No. 1286 of 10 July 1953 and the Decree of 10 May 1957). The Committee also noted the Government’s indication that these texts, which date from the colonial period, have been repealed and that the voluntary nature of agricultural work has been confirmed.

The Committee notes the absence of information on this subject in the Government’s report. The Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to provide copies of the texts repealing the legislative texts referred to above and which establish the voluntary nature of this agricultural work.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.