Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

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

The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no reply to previous comments. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the following matters raised in its previous direct request:

Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Freedom to leave the service of the State. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide copies of the provisions of the national legislation under which career members of the armed forces may leave the service in time of peace.

Article 25. Application of adequate penalties. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that, under section 228 of the Labour Code, any person who is in violation of section 4 of the above Code, which prohibits recourse to forced or compulsory labour, is liable to a fine of from 5,000 to 50,000 francs and a sentence of imprisonment of between six days and three months, or to one of these two penalties alone. Noting that under this provision the exaction of forced labour may be penalized solely by a fine, the Committee drew the Government’s attention to the penal nature of the sanctions required by Article 25 of the Convention. Having taken notice that a reform of the Penal Code and the Code of Penal Procedure was under way since 2002 in cooperation with the United Nations Peace-Building Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA), the Committee requested the Government to provide fuller information on this process. The Committee notes that in its report the Government indicates that this process has been suspended pending the installation of the new authorities. The Committee hopes that when the Government will be in a position to resume the process of reform of the Penal Code, it will take account of the above comments in order to ensure that a provision making the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour punishable as a penal offence, in accordance with Article 25 of the Convention, is included in the Penal Code.

Trafficking in persons. Noting that the Government has provided no indications in reply to the information requested by the Committee in its general observation of 2000, the Committee requests it to refer to this observation and to provide information on the measures adopted with a view to preventing, repressing and punishing the trafficking in persons for the purposes of their exploitation and on the difficulties encountered by the public authorities in combating the phenomenon of trafficking.