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

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Djibouti (Ratification: 1978)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received.

However, it notes the interim conclusions of the Committee on Freedom of Association in Cases Nos. 1851, 1922 and 2042 (see 318th Report of the Committee on Freedom of Association, approved by the Governing Body in November 1999, paragraphs 188-207).

The Committee notes that the Committee on Freedom of Association observes with great concern that, despite the promises made by the Government to the direct contacts mission in January 1998, no tangible progress has been achieved since then in the restoration of freedom of association in full. Like the Committee on Freedom of Association, the Committee of Experts urges the Government to provide detailed information on the measures taken to ensure that dismissed trade union leaders who so request shall be reinstated in their posts and employment and to ensure that Djibouti workers may elect their union representatives freely and democratically in the trade union elections, in their companies and at the trade union confederations' ordinary congresses.

In addition, the Committee recalls that its previous comments concerned the need to repeal or amend the following provisions:

-- section 5 of the Act on Associations, as amended in 1977, to ensure that prior authorization for the establishment of associations may not be imposed on trade unions;

-- section 6 of the Labour Code, which limits the holding of trade union office to Djibouti nationals, in order to allow foreign workers to hold trade union office, at least after a reasonable period of residence in the country;

-- section 23 of Decree No. 83-099/PR/FP of 10 September 1983, establishing the conditions governing the right to organize and the right to strike of public servants, which confers on the President of the Republic the power to requisition public servants who are indispensable to the life of the nation and to the operation of essential public services. The Committee asks the Government to limit this power of requisitioning to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State or in essential services in the strict sense of the term, that is, those the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, or in the event of an acute national crisis.

The Committee once again urges the Government to restore freedom of association as rapidly as possible in law and in practice and requests the Government to keep it informed of any positive developments in this respect.