Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Guarding of Machinery Convention, 1963 (No. 119) - Niger (Ratification: 1964)

In its previous comments, the Committee noted the absence of provisions to give effect to the Convention. It noted that in 1982 the Government had submitted to the Committee for its examination, and to verify its conformity with the Convention, a draft Decree establishing the rules on safety and health to be observed in the use of machinery. The draft Decree was examined by the Committee.

In its last report, the Government states that at the present time, in view of the development of technology, there is a multiplication of machinery that is ever more dangerous for the safety of the workers, and that it has embarked upon a policy of introducing legislation on the prevention of occupational hazards. It refers once again to the above draft Decree.

In this connection, the Committee recalls that, as regards Article 4 of the Convention, the draft Decree contains no provisions setting out that the obligation to ensure compliance with the prohibition of the sale, hire, transfer in any other manner and exhibition of machinery of which the dangerous parts are without appropriate guards, shall rest on the vendor, the person letting out on hire or transferring the machinery in any other manner, or the exhibitor and their respective agents, as well as on the manufacturer when he sells machinery, lets it out on hire, transfers it in any other manner or exhibits it. It would therefore be desirable to include a provision to this effect in the draft Decree.

The Committee hopes that the draft Decree establishing the rules on safety and health to be observed in the use of machinery will be adopted in the near future and that the Government will not fail to supply a copy of it.