Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Argentina (Ratification: 1950)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Argentina (Ratification: 2016)

The Committee takes note of the Government's report. In its previous comments, the Committee noted a National Penitentiary Policy Steering Plan which referred to a preliminary draft law on training and work in prisons: this was intended to make inmates' work more flexible and optimize potential productivity so that penitentiary work would be integrated into overall national production through the participation of private industry and all production-linked sectors. The Committee drew the Government's attention to paragraphs 97 and ff. of its 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour, in which it recalled that prison work carried out for private undertakings is compatible with the Convention only if the necessary guarantees exist to ensure that the persons concerned offer themselves voluntarily without being subjected to pressure or the threat of any penalty and that the work is carried out in conditions comparable to those of free workers in regard to wages, social security, working hours, etc. In addition, the Committee also referred to a proposal by the Government to amend the National Prisons Act.

The Government in its report states that it will inform the Committee of any progress made on the matters, and the Committee takes due note of this. However the Committee hopes that the Government will be able to indicate in its next report positive developments with regard to the adoption of these texts, given the requirements in particular of Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 2(c), of the Convention.