Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Cuba (Ratification: 1958)

Article 1(b) of the Convention

1. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that Act No. 75 respecting the National Defence of 21 December 1994 repealed Act No. 1253 on the Youth Labour Army (EJT), and that under Act No. 75 the productive activities called for from the members of the EJT in application of Act No. 1253, are now performed within the framework of compulsory military service, and that young persons may express their preference for various units or specialities in which they may perform their active military service.

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its last report on the characteristics of the service and the conditions under which the EJT carries out its activities. In this connection, the Committee recalls that Article 2, paragraph 2(a), of Convention No. 29, also ratified by Cuba, only excludes work exacted under compulsory military service of a purely military character, and refers to paragraphs 25 and 49 of the 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour, where it indicates that this cannot be held to include activities of interest to national development carried out by young persons, even where such activities are carried out within the framework of compulsory military service or as an alternative to such service. Equally, as the Committee pointed out in paragraph 31 of the same General Survey, while the existence of a choice between military service proper and non-military work may provide a useful safeguard, it does not in itself exclude the application of the Convention when the choice between different forms of service is made within the framework and on the basis of a compulsory service.

In view of the information supplied by the Government on the advantages to which young persons are entitled when choosing to join the EJT rather than regular military service, the Committee expresses the hope that the Government will consider the possibility of removing the activities currently undertaken by the EJT from the ambit of compulsory military service and military discipline, and entrust these activities to a genuinely civil and voluntary organization, whose members are free to leave the organization under the conditions set forth in the general labour legislation. This would not necessarily prevent this type of work from providing them with a total or partial exemption from obligatory military service, which could be limited to two months' basic training. The Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report what measures have been taken or are envisaged in this connection.

2. In its earlier comments the Committee referred to Act No. 1254 respecting social service and its regulations issued by Decree No. 3771 of 1974 which provide that Cuban citizens who graduate in higher education or as middle-level technicians or through regular courses for primary schoolteachers, are obliged to perform social service, in accordance with the planning and priorities for development work laid down by the Government. The duration of the service is three years and it is performed at the place and in the posts for which the graduate is intended, and her or his personal and family circumstances are taken into account. Unjustified refusal to perform social service entails temporary or permanent disqualifications from exercising his or her profession, which is recorded in the workbook of the person concerned. The Government reiterates in its report that at present the provisions relative to temporary or permanent disqualification from exercise of profession are not applied in practice, and states that the labour legislation is still being analysed to adjust it to the new conditions present in the country. The Committee again trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures to bring its Act respecting social service and its regulations into compliance with the Convention and that it will provide information in the near future on the progress achieved in that respect.