Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 1990, publiée 77ème session CIT (1990)

1. In earlier comments, the Committee referred to section 1 of Order No. 68-353 of 6 April 1968 under which labour is compulsory for all those detained in detention and disciplinary centres.

The Committee notes that the text of Order No. 68-353 does not make it clear that, in accordance with the Convention, work may be exacted from persons in detention only as a consequence of a conviction.

The Committee asks the Government to indicate whether other legal texts provide for exemption from compulsory prison labour for detainees who have not been convicted, such as prisoners awaiting trial or persons detained without trial. If not, the Committee asks the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated to ensure that work cannot be exacted from such persons.

2. The Committee noted previously that section 7 of Order No. 68-353, of 6 April 1968, provides in its first subsection that the hiring out of prison labour, composed of convicted prisoners, to private individuals or enterprises, for work outside the prison establishment shall be expressly prohibited and, in its second subsection, that prisoners whose behaviour is regarded as satisfactory shall be authorised to work for private employers with a view to their moral rehabilitation and readaptation to normal working life.

Referring to paragraphs 97 to 101 of its General Survey of 1979 on the Abolition of Forced Labour, which concern the conditions governing the use of prison labour, the Committee asked the Government to provide information on the practice of the use of prison labour by individuals or associations.

The Committee notes the Government's indications that, since 1978, there has been no hiring out of prison labour to private individuals or associations, and that such labour is used only inside penitentiary establishments or outside the latter by the prison administration in work which is in the public interest.

The Committee also notes that all the legal texts concerning the work of detainees are currently being reviewed, which will enable the requirements of the Convention to be taken into account.

The Committee asks the Government to report on the progress of the above review and to provide copies of the texts concerning the labour of detainees as soon as they are adopted.