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

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Burkina Faso (Ratification: 1960)

Article 2(2)(a) and (d) of the Convention. Work or service exacted under compulsory military service laws. Work of national interest. The Committee previously noted that, according to Act No. 009/98/AN of 16 April 1998 issuing general staff regulations for the national armed forces, any unmarried citizen of Burkina Faso of 18 to 25 years of age may freely undertake or be called upon to serve in the national army. It noted that the obligation to serve involved a statutory period of 18 months’ active service devoted to civic and military instruction and to work in the national interest (section 36). Noting the Government statement that work in the national interest in which conscripts may participate is strictly limited to cases of force majeure, the Committee requested the Government to align the legislation with the indicated practice.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication, in its report, that the revision of the legislation on military service is still ongoing and that all the necessary measures will be taken to bring the national legislation into conformity with the Convention. The Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary steps, in the context of the ongoing revision of the legislation on military service, to ensure that the law expressly provides that work of national interest which may be assigned to conscripts in the context of their compulsory military service is strictly limited to cases of force majeure.

Article 2(2)(c). Work exacted as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that several provisions of Act No. 10-2017/AN, of 10 April 2017, on the prison system (Prison System Act) regulate prison labour and provide that prison labour outside the prison shall be subject to a contract between the prison administration and the user, to set in particular the duration of the contract and the fees payable (section 196). According to section 198, working conditions and remuneration shall be discussed by the prisoner in question and the employer and submitted for approval by the Committee on the Application of Sentences.

The Committee observes that the Prison System Act provides that convicted prisoners are required to work (section 181) and that prisoners admitted to the correctional division can be employed outside the prison, in particular by private entities (section 190). In that regard, the Committee wishes to emphasize that work by prisoners for private enterprises can be held compatible with the Convention only where the necessary safeguards exist to ensure that such work is not compulsory and is carried out with the formal, informed and freely given consent of the person concerned, and that the conditions of such work approximate those of a free labour relationship. The Committee requests the Government to specify whether prisoners give their free, formal and informed consent to work for private enterprises, in practice. It further requests the Government to provide information on the remuneration and working conditions of prisoners who work for private entities, including by providing samples of contracts concluded between prison authorities and private companies using prison labour, as well as agreements concluded between private enterprises and prisoners, which have been validated by the Committee on the Application of Sentences.