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

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Guinea-Bissau (Ratification: 1977)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. 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 matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee noted previously that, according to the information provided by the Government in its report, all sentences of imprisonment pronounced by the courts are, by virtue of the Penal Code (and other texts promulgating penal legislation), and in accordance with the severity of the sentence, sentences of compulsory productive labour, conforming to modern penal concepts, intended to abolish prison by creating effective conditions for the social rehabilitation of the offenders. The Government also indicated that, for want of resources, it is impossible to give full effect to this principle and that many sentences of compulsory productive labour are in fact served in prison.

The Committee noted sections 54(1), (3) and 68 of the Regulations of the Carache Re-education Centre (which was supplied by the Government in one of the reports on the application of Convention No. 29) under which detainees have the obligation to participate in the productive, educational and recreational work of the Centre (section 54(3)) and are obliged to perform work commensurate with their strength and aptitudes (section 68). The Committee also noted that under section 2(1)(a) and (b) of the same Regulations, political training and productive labour are the means for re-educating detainees.

The Committee noted previously the Government's statement that the freedoms of expression, meeting and association guaranteed by the Constitution (sections 6, 8 and 44) are enjoyed in the conditions or in the forms provided for by the laws, that these laws were not yet in existence but that State bodies were drafting them.

The Committee noted the Government's indications in its report for the period ending 30 June 1989 concerning the observance of constitutional guarantees. According to these indications, the freedoms of expression, association and meeting, and religious freedom, although guaranteed by the Constitution, may not be exercised against national independence, territorial integrity, national unity, the institutions of the Republic and the principles and objectives enshrined in the Constitution.

The Committee referred to paragraphs 102 to 109 of its 1979 General Survey on the Abolition of Forced Labour, in which it stated that labour imposed on persons as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law will in most cases have no relevance to the application of the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention but that, on the other hand, any form of compulsory labour, including prison labour, comes under the Convention if it is imposed in any of the five cases specified by the Convention. The Committee also stated that, although prison labour exacted from common offenders is intended to reform or rehabilitate them, the same need does not arise in the case of persons convicted for their opinions or for having taken part in a strike.

The Committee again expresses the hope that, when drafting legislation respecting the exercise of the constitutional rights of expression, association and meeting, due account will be taken of the provisions of the Convention. It requests the Government to indicate any measure that has been taken or is envisaged to lay down that sentences of imprisonment, involving forced labour, cannot be imposed on persons who have expressed certain political opinions or have shown their ideological opposition to the established political, social or economic order.

The Committee once again requests the Government to supply copies of amendments that have been made to the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure since 24 September 1973.

Article 1(c) and (d) of the Convention. The Committee noted that, by virtue of section 1 of Act No. 1/79 of 8 June 1979 respecting crimes against the national economy, it is a crime against the national economy, punishable by compulsory productive labour, to infringe voluntarily the general instructions of the higher bodies of the PAIGC on the running of the economy and the economic development of the country, or laws, regulations or state decisions or the instructions of collective bodies, particularly on the conduct of affairs and the organization of labour.

The Committee noted the Government's indications that the provisions of Act No. 1/79 apply in the event of economic sabotage. The Committee also noted that there can be no remission or suspension of sentences involving compulsory productive labour against crimes against the national economy (section 4 of Act No. 1/79). It again requests the Government to assess the scope of section 1 of Act No. 1/79, to supply information on the effect given in practice to this provision, and particularly on the number of persons convicted and to supply copies of the relevant judicial decisions.