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

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Ratification: 1997)

Article 1(c) of the Convention. Punishment for breaches of labour discipline. In its previous comments, the Committee referred to section 21(a) of the Prisons Ordinance (Cap. 234), under which any officer of the Correctional Services Department or other person employed in the prisons, who, after having duly engaged to serve as such, absents himself from his duties, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for six months (which involves an obligation to work). The Committee notes the Government’s repeated statement that there have been no cases concerning section 21(a) thus far. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the application of section 21(a) of the Prisons Ordinance in practice, supplying copies of the relevant court decisions, if available.