Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Comoros (Ratification: 1978)

Article 1(a) of the Convention. In its previous direct request, the Committee asked the Government to provide information on the practical application, including copies of any judgements, of the following provisions of the Penal Code which provide for sentences of imprisonment involving, by virtue of section 1 of Order No. 68-353 of 6 April 1968, the obligation to work:

- section 79 covering schemes, acts and propaganda such as to jeopardise, in particular, public security or to discredit the political institutions or their operation;

- section 94 covering incitement to unarmed riotous assembly;

- section 99 covering participation in the organisation of an unannounced demonstration;

- section 252 covering shouting and singing in public places or at public meetings;

- section 254 covering the publication, dissemination or reproduction by any means whatsoever, whether deliberate or not, of false news that has affected or might affect the morale of the population.

The Committee notes the information in the Government's report, to the effect that, so far, no sentences have been passed under the above-mentioned provisions. The Committee also notes that Order No. 68-353 is in the process of being revised.

The Committee hopes that the draft being prepared will ensure that sentences of imprisonment involving compulsory labour may not be imposed on persons who express or have expressed certain political opinions or demonstrate their ideological opposition to the established political, social or economic order. The Committee asks the Government to report on the progress of the above-mentioned revision and to provide a copy of the new text as soon as it has been adopted.