Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Rwanda (Ratification: 1988)

The Committee notes the information contained in the Government's report and reiterates its earlier comments on the draft Labour Code.

1. The right to establish occupational organizations without previous authorization. The Committee takes due note of the contents of Ministerial Order No. 1974/06 of 18 December 1987, which concerns procedures for depositing the statutes of trade union organizations. It notes that the provisions of this Order are restricted to the formal requirements of establishing organizations with the aim of ensuring that their rules are made public.

2. The right of workers' organizations to organize their activities and to formulate their programmes without interference from the public authorities. The Committee notes the Government's statements that it will take account of its comments on restriction of the right to strike when elaborating the measures to implement the Labour Code. It recalls however that section 272 remains the basic legal text for this draft. This section restricts the right to strike of workers occupying posts essential for the physical safety of persons, for the conservation of installations and for ensuring the functioning of the country's vital socio-economic sectors. The Committee stresses that the right to strike may be restricted only to maintain essential services, that is those the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population. The Committee considers that section 272 of the draft Labour Code has too wide a scope and that the restrictions to the right to strike should be limited to essential services in the strict sense of the term. In the Committee's opinion this restriction should appear clearly within section 272 itself and not in the implementing texts.

The Committee requests the Government to transmit in its next report all information on progress achieved in these fields.