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

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1952)

The Committee notes that the Committee on Freedom of Association has referred to it the legislative aspects of Cases Nos. 2967 and 3089 (393rd Report of the Committee, March 2021), concerning allegations of incompatibility of a number of provisions of the Criminal Code and the Labour Code with the Convention. The Committee notes that most of the provisions challenged in Cases Nos. 2967 and 3089 have already been examined by the Committee in the framework of its monitoring of the application of the Convention. The Committee notes, however, that the allegations also refer to several additional provisions of the Criminal Code (sections 256, 292, 294 and 414) which, according to the Guatemalan Union, Indigenous and Peasant Movement would facilitate the criminalization of peaceful labour protests by means of an excessively broad and subjective characterization of common offences (such as usurpation of buildings or paralysation of means of transport). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the possible application in practice of the above-mentioned provisions of the Criminal Code to events occurring in the context of the exercise of freedom of association, in particular the right to strike.