Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Trade union and employers organizations rights and civil liberties2

Confiscation and occupation of property

1. Acts of confiscation and occupation of property of leaders of employers or workers organizations are contrary to freedom of association if they are taken as a consequence of their activities as representatives of such organizations.

1. It is important to take every measure to avoid any kind of discretion or discrimination in the legal mechanisms governing the expropriation or recovery of land, or other mechanisms that affect the right to own property.

1. In a case concerning the expropriation of land and assets of the leaders of a central employers organization in the context of an agrarian reform, the Committee, while realising that the persons in question cannot take advantage of their position as employers' leaders to evade the consequences of an agrarian reform policy, noted with concern that these measures had allegedly affected a large number of leaders of the employers organisation in a discriminatory fashion and expressed the hope that the persons in question would be fairly compensated for their losses.

1. So-called land recovery measures applied against an employers leader can have an intimidating effect on employers leaders and their organizations and limit the free exercise of their activities, in violation of Article 3 of Convention No. 87.

1. With regard to the confiscation of the land of employers leaders, the Committee was convinced, in the light of information gathered during a direct contacts mission, that the actual possibilities for the persons concerned of appealing against these measures to the courts were relatively limited and that there was either no compensation for these confiscations (in the case of land that was unused, unprofitable or abandoned), or inadequate compensation (the issue of agrarian reform bonds). The Committee therefore considered that all the provisions concerning compensation for land expropriation should be reviewed to make sure that there was real and fair compensation for the losses thus sustained by the owners, and that the Government should reopen the compensation files if so requested by persons who considered they had been despoiled in the agrarian reform process.