Definitive Report - Report No 233, March 1984

1. 32. The complaint of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU) is contained in a communication dated 5 April 1983. The ICATU sent additional information relating to the complaint on 17 May 1983. The Government transmitted its reply in a communication dated 5 January 1984.
2. 33. Jordan has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87); it has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant's allegations

1. 34. In its communication of 5 April 1983, the ICATU states that two members of its observer delegation attending the 11th Session of the Conference of the Arab Labour Organisation being held in Amman from 6 to 16 March 1983 were unjustly expelled by the Jordanian security forces on 6 March 1983. According to the complainant, the two members of the delegation - one representing the Bahrain Workers' Federation and the other the National Committee of Workers of Oman - had legally entered Jordan.
2. 35. The ICATU states that the intervention on their behalf by the ICATU Secretary-General, his attempts to put a stop to these events and his reminders about custom and Arab and international Conventions met with obstinate refusal by the chief of the security forces detachment who ordered his men to beat and ill-treat the Secretary-General and to arrest the two delegates in question by force. The two delegates were later taken, under escort, to the airport and expelled to Greece. According to the complainant, the Jordanian authorities had intended to send them to their respective countries but gave in to the pressure exerted by the Workers' group of the Conference and the protests made by some delegations.
3. 36. The ICATU considers that this expulsion not only violates Article 15 of the Constitution of the Arab Labour Organisation - which guarantees diplomatic immunity to delegations participating in the work of the Conference - but also shows how the Jordanian authorities are violating the civil liberties and trade union rights of the working class in Jordan.
4. 37. In its communication of 17 May 1983, the ICATU states that its Secretary-General, Mr. Ahmed Jalloud, wrote, on 20 March 1983, to all its affiliated unions explaining the expulsion in the following terms: the ICATU was invited (in a letter dated 30 January 1983 from the Director-General of the Arab Labour Office) to the 11th Session of the Arab Labour Conference as observer by virtue of article 4 of the Conference Standing Orders; an emergency sitting of the ICATU Central Council decided on a delegation of six persons, headed by, Mr. Jalloud and including Ahmed Salem Kassem of the National Committee of Workers of Oman and Sakr Mohammad Ahmad of the Bahrain Workers' Federation; the delegation received the relevant visas from the Jordanian Embassy in Damascus and arrived in Jordan on 5 March 1983; the next day approximately 15 members of the security forces arrested Messrs. Kassem and Ahmed at their hotel and injured those who tried to intercede on their behalf. According to the letter, this event was condemned at the first meeting of the Workers' group of the Conference.

B. The Government's reply

1. 38. The Government attaches to its letter of 5 January 1984 various documents relating to the expulsion of the trade unionists in question, in particular, a copy of an ICATU memorandum (dated 2 March 1982 and communicated to all federations of workers' trade unions of Arab States Members of the Arab Labour Organisation) in which the ICATU threatened to boycott the 11th Session of the Conference unless certain conditions relating to the Jordanian trade union legislation and practice be met. The Government also attaches a copy of the reply to this memorandum prepared by the General Federation of Workers' Trade Unions of Jordan (dated 5 February 1983) criticising, in equally strong terms, the ICATU position. According to the Government, the Secretary-General of the ICATU was organising surprise action to create confusion at the 11th Session of the Conference, especially in view of the recent admission of Oman and the presence of a delegation from that country at the Conference.
2. 39. The Government states that the two members of the ICATU delegation in question did have valid admission visas but they held diplomatic passports issued by Democratic Yemen and not by Bahrain or Oman. Moreover, the names in the passports did not correspond to the bearers' real names. Accordingly, continues the Government, when these two persons attempted to register with the Conference secretariat, the secretariat refused to register them and called on the competent Jordanian authorities to remove them from the Conference. According to the Government, one of these persons is a member of the so-called "People's Front for the Liberation of Oman" and the other belongs to the so-called "People's Front for the Liberation of Bahrain".
3. 40. The Government points out that the two persons concerned were subsequently sent to the country of their choice.
4. 41. After the Secretary-General of the ICATU made a disturbance in the hotel reception hall, the Workers' group of the Conference met and decided to set up a committee to look into the matter. The Jordanian Minister of Labour himself told the committee that Mr. Jalloud had used imposters in order to upset the running of the Conference. Apologies were made to Mr. Jalloud for what he had suffered - although he was the cause of the situation - and the Conference continued without further reference to the event. According to the Government, most delegations stated that the expulsion of the two individuals had cleared the air at the Conference and contributed to its success.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 42. The Committee notes that this case concerns the expulsion from Jordan on 6 March 1983 of two members of the ICATU observer delegation to the 11th Session of the Arab Labour Conference which was being held there from 6 to 16 March 1983. The Committee also notes the Government's justification for the expulsions, namely that the persons concerned held false passports and had entered Jordan with the intention of disrupting the Conference.
2. 43. The Committee has stated in the past that, while denial of entry to aliens or expulsion from its territory of aliens is the sovereign right of a State, nevertheless, the right of trade unions to become affiliated to international workers' organisations necessarily involves the right for them to maintain normal contact and to participate in trade union activities, such as labour conferences. The corollary of this right is that the formalities to which trade unionists and trade union leaders are subject in seeking entry to the territory of a State or in attending to trade union business there should be based on objective criteria and be free of anti-union discrimination. [See, for example, 211th Report, Case No. 1044 (Dominican Republic), para. 602.] In the present case the Government, although stating that the two trade union delegates held false passports has produced no concrete evidence to that effect, nor has it substantiated its suspicion - apparently based on an ICATU memorandum circulated a year earlier and criticising the choice of Jordan as the host country for the 11th Session of the Conference - that they had entered the country to disrupt the Arab Labour Conference. On the other hand, the complainant organisation itself does not provide detailed information as to the identities of the two members of its delegation to the 11th Session of the Arab Labour Conference. Nor does it explain why the two persons chose to be flown to Greece rather than to the countries whose workers they purport to represent. In view of the contradictory nature of the information before it and the fact that neither the complainant nor the Government substantiate their version of the facts, the Committee considers that it is not in a position to reach a conclusion as to whether or not the alleged expulsion constituted a violation of the principles of freedom of association. The question as to whether the Government's action violated article 15 of the Constitution of the Arab Labour Organisation is one that falls within the competence of the appropriate bodies of that organisation and not within that of the Committee. The Committee accordingly recommends that this case does not call for further examination.