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

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1959)

Article 1(a), (c) and (d) of the Convention. For several years the Committee has been referring to the provisions of Legislative Decree No. 9 of 10 April 1963, and to sections 390(2), 396, 419 and 430 of the Penal Code, under which sentences of imprisonment involving, by virtue of section 47 of the Penal Code, the obligation to work, can be imposed as a punishment for expressing certain political opinions, as a measure of labour discipline or for participation in strikes.

In its report, the Government states that the Congress of the Republic has before it a preliminary draft of a Penal Code which will take into consideration the Committee's comments.

The Committee notes that this matter has been the subject of its comments for more than ten years and once again recalls that, as stated in paragraphs 102 to 109 of its 1979 General Survey on the Abolition of Forced Labour, States which have ratified the Convention take upon themselves the obligation to suppress any form of forced labour, including labour as a result of a conviction in a court of law, in the cases set out in the Convention.

The Committee also recalls that, with a view to bringing the legislation into harmony with the Convention, measures can be taken either to redefine the offences which can be sanctioned in order to ensure that no-one can be punished for having expressed political opinions or indicated their ideological opposition to the established political, social or economic system, or by according a special status to prisoners convicted of certain offences, under which they are free from the obligation to perform compulsory prison labour, although they retain the right to work upon request.

The Committee trusts that the Government will soon take the necessary measures to ensure observance of the Convention on this point.