Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Central African Republic (Ratification: 1960)

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. 1. Trafficking in persons. The Committee previously noted the development of awareness-raising and training activities for the competent authorities in trafficking in persons. It requested the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure the application in practice of the provisions of section 151 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes trafficking in persons.

The Committee notes the lack of information from the Government on this matter. It notes the information from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), available on its website, according to which no prosecutions or convictions of persons involved in trafficking have been brought since 2008. UNODC also indicates that there are 40 focal points for trafficking in persons who are trained in this area and appointed by the Government. A national action plan to combat trafficking in persons, together with a decree establishing a coordination mechanism against trafficking in persons, was signed on 13 March 2020. It sets out, inter alia, measures to promote the prosecution of perpetrators of trafficking in persons, such as the establishment of special hearings, the appointment of an investigating judge to this end, the training of magistrates and the creation of a database of jurisprudence. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to combat trafficking in persons, for the purpose of both labour and sexual exploitation, and to indicate the impact of the measures taken within the framework of the national action plan. The Committee requests the Government to continue taking measures to identify victims of trafficking and ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and subject to really effective and dissuasive penalties.

2. Repeal of legal texts. Idleness, active population and imposition of compulsory activities. For many years, the Committee has been asking the Government to take the necessary steps to formally repeal the following provisions of the national legislation, which are contrary to the Convention inasmuch as they constitute a direct or indirect compulsion to work:

• – Ordinance No. 66/004 of 8 January 1966 on the suppression of idleness, as amended by Ordinance No. 72/083 of 18 October 1972, under which any able-bodied person between 18 and 55 years of age who cannot prove that he or she is engaged in a normal activity providing for his or her subsistence or engaged in studies shall be considered to be idle and shall be liable to imprisonment of one to three years;
• – Ordinance No. 66/038 of June 1966 on the supervision of the active population, under which any person between 18 and 55 years of age who cannot prove that he or she belongs to one of the eight categories of the active population shall be called up to cultivate land designated by the administrative authorities and shall also be considered a vagabond if apprehended outside his or her sub-prefecture of origin and shall be liable to imprisonment;
• – Ordinance No. 75/005 of 5 January 1975 obliging all citizens to provide proof of the exercise of a commercial, agricultural or pastoral activity and rendering any person in breach of this provision liable to the most severe penalties;
• – section 28 of Act No. 60/109 of 27 June 1960 on the development of the rural economy, under which minimum areas for cultivation are to be established for each rural community.

The Committee notes with regret the absence of information from the Government in this regard. Recalling that the Government has indicated on several occasions that these texts have fallen into disuse, the Committee urges it to take the necessary measures to formally repeal the abovementioned provisions of the legislation to prevent any legal ambiguity in the national legislative scheme.

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. 1. Requisitioning of labour and work in the public interest. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that the exceptions to forced labour specified in section 8 of the Labour Code include “any work or service performed pursuant to a requisitioning order” and also “any work or service in the public interest performed with the consent of the persons concerned”. The Committee requested the Government to indicate the conditions in which work in the public interest may be requisitioned, as well as the arrangements for carrying out such work.

The Government reiterates its indication that a regulatory text will cover requisitioning of the population to carry out work in the public interest. It specifies that where there is a need for community work, community group leaders are made aware of the development programmes and projects requiring voluntary adhesion to be requested of the population concerned. The Committee requests the Government to indicate how voluntary adhesion of the population is obtained in practice, in the case of requisitioning to carry out work in the public interest, and the consequences in the case of refusal to carry out this work. In addition, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the type of work exacted in this context and the conditions in which it is carried out. Lastly, the Committee hopes that during the preparation of the decree regulating requisitioning to carry out work in the public interest the Government will take account of the limits within which the exceptions to forced labour are enshrined in Article 2(2) of the Convention concerning any work or service exacted in cases of emergency (clause (d)) or minor communal services (clause (e)).

2. Freedom of military personnel to leave their employment. The Committee previously noted the Government’s indication that military personnel are governed by special conditions of service within the exclusive remit of the President of the Republic. It requested the Government to indicate the applicable provisions regulating the right of members of the armed forces to end their contractual period of service on their own initiative.

The Government indicates that the special conditions of service governing members of the armed forces regulate activities specific to the national defence forces and provide for the establishment of a disciplinary council responsible for examining issues of resignation during peacetime. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the criteria used by the disciplinary council for accepting or rejecting a request for resignation from career personnel of the armed forces during peacetime, and the time limit in which their request is examined. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the number of requests for resignation that have been refused, and the grounds for these refusals. It also requests it to provide copies of the applicable provisions in this area.