Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

The Committee notes the observations of August 2010 submitted by the Single Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CUT) and the Confederation of Workers of Colombia (CTC) referring to the situation of vulnerable categories of workers (women, children, migrants or indigenous people) that may be the target of certain types of forced labour, including forced prostitution, trafficking in persons, the forced labour of children or exploitation in the context of compulsory military service. The Committee hopes that the Government will provide information on these observations with its next report.

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons. The Committee notes that in reply to its general observation on trafficking in persons, the Government sent information in 2002 on the provisions of the law (section 188A of the Penal Code) that make trafficking in persons a criminal offence, the measures taken to combat the phenomenon and alert the population, and on the international cooperation activities developed for these purposes. The Committee has since then learned of the adoption of Act No. 985 of 2005 setting forth measures to combat trafficking in persons and protect the victims, and of Decree No. 4786 of 19 December 2008 establishing a comprehensive national strategy to combat trafficking in persons. The Committee notes that the aim of the strategy, which covers the period from 2007 to 2012, is to bolster the State policy so as to reduce trafficking, a scourge affecting both Colombia and the international community. The strategy has an integrated approach, covering prevention, protection and assistance for victims and witnesses, international cooperation, police investigation and judicial action.

The Committee notes that these measures reflect the Government’s determination to combat trafficking in persons. It nonetheless observes that several United Nations bodies have expressed concern that despite such measures, trafficking in persons is still a major problem in Colombia (see, for example, the 2007 concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women – CEDAW/C/COL/CO/6, paragraphs 20–21 – and those of 2009 by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families – CMW/C/COL/CO/1CRP, paragraphs 31–32). The Committee asks the Government to provide, in its next report, detailed information on the measures taken to implement the various parts of the national strategy, specifying the results obtained and the difficulties encountered. Please also provide information on legal proceedings brought against perpetrators of trafficking, specifying the penalties imposed, so that the Committee may satisfy itself that such penalties are really adequate and strictly enforced as required by Article 25 of the Convention.

Article 2(2)(a). Purely military character of work exacted in the context of compulsory military service. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that there are various forms of compulsory military service and that graduates may perform compulsory military service as assistants in the National Prison Guards and Surveillance Service (section 50 of Act No. 65 of 1993 and Decree No. 537 of 1994 regulating military service for graduates in the National Prison Institute). The Government stated that the duties of such assistants include assisting prison staff with the guarding, surveillance and reintegration of prisoners and that they accordingly take part in educational, sports and social activities for prisoners. The Committee pointed out that to be excluded from the scope of the Convention and in order not to be considered as forced labour, work exacted in virtue of compulsory military service laws must be of a purely military character. It took the view that this was not the case of the duties assigned to graduates performing their military service in the National Prison Institute. In its latest report, the Government states that compulsory military service is a constitutional duty incumbent on all Colombians, except in certain instances expressly set out in the law (sections 27 and 28 of Act No. 48 of 1993 regulating the recruitment and mobilization service). The Government adds that compulsory military service has its roots in the need to ensure the protection of Colombia’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and uphold the constitutional order. The Government provides statistical information showing that among the various forms of military service, conscripts are distributed as follows in 2010: 37,720 graduate soldiers, 36,814 regular soldiers and 25,654 “peasant” soldiers.

The Committee notes this information. It points out that, although when the Convention was in the course of adoption it was generally agreed that compulsory military service should remain beyond the scope of the Convention given the purpose and rationale for military service, conditions were nonetheless set so as to prevent military service from being diverted from its primary purpose and used to mobilize conscripts for the performance of public works or other tasks that are not purely military in nature. The Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that Act No. 48 of 1993 regulating the recruitment and mobilization service provides expressly in section 13 that “soldiers, and particularly graduate soldiers, in addition to their military training and the other obligations incumbent upon them as soldiers, shall receive instruction and carry on activities relating to furtherance of the wellbeing of the population and the conservation of the environment”. It is plain from this provision that compulsory military service is broader according to Colombia’s concept than the exception allowed by the Convention, and so fails to meet the condition laid down by the Convention for excluding military service from its scope, namely that work performed in the course of military service must be of a purely military character. In these circumstances, and in view of the fact that the statistics supplied by the Government show that there are more graduate soldiers than regular soldiers, the Committee again asks the Government to take the necessary steps to review all laws and regulations governing compulsory military service and bring them into line with the Convention.