Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

The Committee notes the Government’s brief report on the application of the Convention. It hopes that the Government’s next report will contain full and detailed information on the following matters raised in the Committee’s earlier comments.

Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Forced labour and captivity practices in connection with armed conflict. In its earlier comments, the Committee referred to the allegations concerning forced labour and captivity practices which took place in the south-eastern part of the country in connection with armed conflict, where children were allegedly held hostage by adults and used as a source of forced and captive labour. The Committee previously noted the Government’s indication in its report that the special investigation committee sent by the Government to investigate the alleged forced labour practices in the south-eastern region recommended that a national committee be established to trace and reunite displaced women and children taken captive during the war and that, in order to enhance the National Reconciliation and Reunification Programmes, “local authorities should be directed to encourage their citizens to report any acts of alleged forced labour, intimidation, harassment, maltreatment for appropriate investigation and corrective measures”.

While having noted that the south-eastern part of the country was in a grave humanitarian crisis and an extreme state of poverty and that any reported situations of forced labour exploitation were due to the consequences of the war, the Committee expressed the hope that the Government would encourage joint efforts and cooperation between governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations at all levels with a view to the effective elimination of all forms of compulsory labour, including that of children, and requested the Government to supply full information on measures taken to this end.

The Committee notes the Government’s brief indication in its report supplied in May 2008 that a tripartite national committee is being considered to investigate the complaints of forced labour and hostage situation in the south-eastern region, that consultations for this investigation have already begun and the committee is expected to start its work in the near future. The Committee reiterates the firm hope that the Government will provide, in its next report, full information on the activities of the abovementioned tripartite national committee and on the specific action taken to investigate the situation in the South-East as regards the alleged practices of forced labour, as well as on the measures taken to eliminate such practices. The Committee also hopes that the Government will supply information on the results achieved in this regard by the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which was set up to investigate human rights violations and was empowered to recommend for prosecution the most serious offenders, as well as information on the progress achieved in the establishment of an Independent National Human Rights Commission and drawing up of a national human rights action plan.

Recalling also that, under Article 25 of the Convention, the illegal exaction of forced labour shall be punishable as a penal offence and it shall be an obligation of the State to ensure that the penalties imposed are really adequate and are strictly enforced, the Committee hopes that the necessary action to give effect to this Article will be taken in the near future, by imposing penal sanctions on persons convicted of having exacted forced labour, and that the Government will provide, in its next report, information on any legal proceedings which have been instituted for that purpose and on any penalties imposed.

The Committee is also addressing a request on certain other points directly to the Government.