Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Belize (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes with regret that no report has been received from the Government. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the following matters raised in its previous direct request:

1. In an earlier comment, the Committee noted that section 4(1)(x) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Ordinance (ch. 99), read together with section 4(7) of the same Ordinance, provides that every person who, being able wholly or in part to maintain himself or his family by work or other means, wilfully refuses or neglects to do so, shall be guilty of a petty offence and is liable to imprisonment. The Committee noted that a legal obligation to maintain oneself by work, in the absence of other means, falls within the scope of Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention if enforced by any penalty. The Government having previously indicated that no prosecutions were carried out under the Act, the Committee again expresses the hope that on the occasion when the Ordinance is next amended, section 4(1)(x) will be brought into conformity with the Convention and that the Government will indicate in future reports any prosecutions under it or changes in the situation.

2. The Committee again requests the Government to provide with its next report a copy of the provisions governing enlistment and discharge of members of the defence force, including the Defence (Amendment) Act of 1990.