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

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Peru (Ratification: 1970)

1. The Committee notes with interest the adoption, on 1 February 1998, of Supreme Decree 002-98-TR, regulating Act No. 26772 and extending the prohibition established in the Act which provides that requirements which discriminate, nullify or impair equality of opportunity and treatment shall not be included in offers of employment and access to means of educational training, is applicable to contracting employers, to means of educational training, and also to employment agencies or other bodies which act as intermediaries in offers of employment. The regulation establishes that investigations in respect of discrimination shall be undertaken by the Administrative Labour Authority -- which corresponds to the Directorate of Employment and Vocational Training -- and regulates the procedure and penalties applicable (fines). Conversely, the possibility is established for persons who have participated in a process of selection or admission to employment or to a means of educational training, and who, as a result of the discriminatory criteria set forth under Act No. 26772, have not been contracted or admitted, to request compensation for damages through the civil courts. Please supply information on such requests as may have been presented and in particular in respect of the burden of proof before both the administrative courts and in proceedings regarding discrimination before the civil courts.

2. The Committee noted with interest the full information sent by the Government on the activities of the Programme for the Consolidation of Women's Employment (PROFECE), the organized groups of women looking for work known as "GOOLs" (Grupos Organizados de Oferta Laboral Femenina), the self-employment and microenterprise programme (PRODAME), the Young Workers' Training Programme (ProJoven), the Labour Information System (ProEmpleo) and on the proposal to include the subject "general identity" in the secondary education curriculum. The Committee requests the Government to continue sending information on the development of the programmes mentioned above and wishes to know if the subject of gender identity has effectively been included in the education curriculum, and whether the curriculum deals with discrimination in respect of employment and occupation and the date on which this programme will begin to be implemented.

3. The Committee noted with concern that, according to the concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/304/Add.69) of 13 April 1999, paragraphs 16, 18 and 20, that access to jobs and promotions is often influenced by racial criteria while certain minor or disparaged jobs are left to persons of indigenous or African origin; that the indigenous population, often without identity papers and illiterate, is thus deprived of the possibility of exercising its civic and political rights; that interpreters are not available to monolingual indigenous people and that legislation has not been translated into indigenous languages. It is the Committee's view that the first step in diffusion is the translation of legal texts; consequently, please indicate whether the labour laws, and in particular, Act No. 26772 and its regulations have been translated in Quechua, Aimara and other native languages and whether the sectors referred to above have been informed of the possibility of submitting an appeal in the event of discrimination, nullification or impairment of equality of opportunities and treatment, on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, opinion, national extraction or social origin, inter alia. If the legislation has not been translated as the report cited indicates, the Committee requests the Government to make every effort to translate and diffuse the labour laws in the different indigenous languages. The Committee also requests information on the manner in which national policy has been formulated to promote equality of opportunities and of treatment in respect of employment and occupation as regards persons of indigenous or African origin, and whether there are employment and training programmes similar to those cited in paragraph 2 of this request, or other positive action programmes aimed at the sectors of the population of Quechua, Aimara or other aboriginal language.