Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 1960)

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Observation

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Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Forced labour and sexual slavery in the context of armed conflict. Since 2010, the Committee has been expressing its deep concern at the serious violations of human rights committed by state security forces and various armed groups in the context of the armed conflict that is afflicting the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Committee has noted the information contained in reports of several United Nations agencies on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the observations made by the Confederation of Trade Unions of Congo (CSC) in September 2011 and 2013 and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in September 2012, as well as the discussion in the Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labour Conference in June 2011. This information confirms cases of the abduction of women and children with a view to their use as sexual slaves and the imposition of forced labour, particularly in the form of domestic work. Moreover, in mines, workers are hostages to conflicts for the exploitation of natural resources and are the victims of exploitation and abuse that amounts, for many of them, to forced labour. The Committee noted in 2012 the confirmation by the ITUC of the persistence of cases of sexual slavery, especially in mines in the regions of North Kivu, Orientale Province, Katanga and East Kasai, perpetrated by illegal armed groups and elements of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). The ITUC referred to the systematic use of violence by armed groups to terrorize civilians and force them to transport arms, ammunition, booty from looting and other provisions, or to build housing or work in the fields. The Committee urged the Government to take the necessary measures, as a matter of the utmost urgency, to bring an immediate end to these practices which constitute a serious violation of the Convention and to re-establish a climate of legal security in which recourse to forced labour does not go unpunished.

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its latest report, which mainly concerns the action taken to protect children working in mines and child victims of violence, including sexual violence in the context of the armed conflict. The Government has also provided a document analysing the cases brought to the courts under the new provisions of the Penal Code regarding “offences of sexual violence”. The Committee observes that these cases concern instances of sexual violence against children. This information will be examined in the context of the application of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), under which a report is due in 2014.

The Committee notes the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights and the activities of her Office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, covering the period between November 2011 and May 2013 (A/HRC/24/33 of 12 July 2013). According to this report, throughout the period under review, “many resource-rich areas, mostly in Orientale Province, the Kivus and Northern Katanga, bore witness to human rights violations, including forced labour linked to the illegal exploitation of such resources, allegedly committed by both armed groups and state agents”. The report refers to attacks by armed groups intended to spread terror and a large number of cases of the abduction of civilians and of forced labour committed by armed groups and by combatants of the Allied Democratic Forces. Many of those abducted are forced to engage in work, such as timber cutting, gold mining and agricultural production for the benefit of the armed groups. The Committee notes that the High Commissioner reports some progress, such as the creation of the National Human Rights Commission and the conviction of certain state agents guilty of human rights violations, such as sexual violence. At the same time, the High Commissioner emphasizes the deterioration in the situation, particularly in the east of the country, with “an important increase in the number of human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law that could amount to war crimes, committed by national security and defence forces, as well as by foreign and national armed groups”.

Although aware of the complexity of the situation and the efforts made by the Government to re-establish peace and security, the Committee recalls that failure to respect the rule of law, the climate of impunity and the difficulty of victims in gaining access to justice contribute to the continued perpetration of these serious violations of the Convention. It urges the Government to take measures as a matter of urgency to bring an end to the violence perpetrated against civilians with a view to engaging them into forced labour, including sexual slavery. It urges the Government to continue to combat impunity resolutely and to ensure that the perpetrators of these serious violations of the Convention are brought to justice and punished, and that the victims are compensated for the damage suffered.

Article 25. Criminal penalties. The Committee recalls that, with the exception of section 174c and 174e respecting forced prostitution and sexual slavery, the Penal Code does not establish criminal penalties conducive to penalizing the imposition of forced labour. Moreover, the penalties established by the Labour Code in this respect are not of the dissuasive nature required by Article 25 of the Convention (section 323 of the Labour Code establishes a principal penalty of imprisonment of a maximum of six months and a fine, or one of these two penalties). In its latest report, the Government indicates that the Bill for the eradication of forced labour, containing effective criminal penalties, is still being examined by Parliament and that a copy will be provided once it has been adopted. The Committee requests the Government to ensure that the text prohibiting forced labour will be adopted and enacted in the very near future so that effective and dissuasive criminal penalties can be applied in practice to persons imposing forced labour, in accordance with Article 25 of the Convention.

Repeal of legislation allowing the exaction of work for national development purposes, as a means of collecting unpaid taxes and by persons in preventive detention. For several years, the Committee has been requesting the Government to repeal or amend the following legislatives texts and regulations, which are contrary to the Convention:

– Act No. 76-011 of 21 May 1976 respecting national development and its implementing order, Departmental Order No. 00748/BCE/AGRI/76 of 11 June 1976 on the performance of civic tasks in the context of the National Food Production Programme: these legal texts, which aim to increase productivity in all sectors of national life, require, subject to criminal penalties, every able-bodied adult person who is not already considered to be making his/her contribution by reason of his/her employment to carry out agricultural and other development work, as decided by the Government;
– Legislative Ordinance No. 71/087 of 14 September 1971 on the minimum personal contribution, of which sections 18 to 21 provide for imprisonment involving compulsory labour, upon decision of the chief of the local community or the area commissioner, of taxpayers who have defaulted on their minimum personal contributions; and
– Ordinance No. 15/APAJ of 20 January 1938 respecting the prison system in indigenous districts, which allows work to be exacted from persons in preventive detention (this Ordinance is not on the list of legal texts repealed by Ordinance No. 344 of 15 September 1965 respecting prison labour).

The Government previously indicated that these texts were obsolete and were therefore, de facto, repealed. It added that the promulgation of the Act for the eradication of forced labour would provide a response to the concerns expressed by the Committee of Experts on the need to ensure legal certainty. The Committee trusts that, when adopting the Act for the eradication of forced labour, the legal texts to which it has been referring for many years, and which the Government indicates are obsolete, will finally be repealed formally.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.