Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

1. Article 2, paragraph 2(c), of the Convention. Hiring out of prison labour to private individuals. The Committee notes the adoption of Decree No. 2002-523 of 11 December 2002 amending sections 24, 77 and 82 of Decree No. 69-189 of 14 May 1969 regulating prisons and establishing arrangements for the execution of custodial sentences. The Committee notes with satisfaction that prisoners may no longer be hired out without their consent and that, in all cases, there must be individual work contracts between detainees and the employers or private individuals, in addition to the contract between the Ministry of Justice and hirers of prison labour.

2. Trafficking of children for the purpose of exploiting their labour. In its previous comments, the Committee referred to the situation of children, particularly from Mali and Burkina Faso, who are victims of trafficking and who are forced to work, inter alia, in mines and plantations, or as domestic servants. The Committee noted that the Government was aware of the situation and that a number of measures had been taken to combat the trafficking of children to Côte d’Ivoire.

The Committee notes that in 2003, the Government ratified the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and in September 2005, submitted its first report on the application of that Convention. In Article 3, paragraph (a), Convention No. 182 establishes that the worst forms of child labour include all forms of slavery or similar practices, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, and forced or compulsory labour. Since Convention No. 182 strengthens the protection of children by requiring ratifying States to take immediate and effective measures for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency, the Committee will examine the matter of trafficking in children under Convention No. 182, taking due account of the information supplied by the Government in its report on Convention No. 29, including the copies of judicial decisions.