Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11) - Rwanda (Ratification: 1962)

The Committee notes the Government’s report.

Article 1 of the Convention (all those engaged in agriculture have the same rights of association and combination as industrial workers).  The Committee recalls that the Labour Code of 1967, section 6 of which guarantees the right of association, continues to exclude agricultural workers from its scope (section 186). The Committee underlines again that, under the terms of Article 1 of the Convention, the Government must secure to all those engaged in agriculture the same rights of association and combination as to industrial workers.

The Committee notes that the Government indicates in its report that the revision procedure of the Labour Code, which was transmitted to the Transitional National Assembly in April 1999 for examination and adoption, still has to go through two stages (the examination of the draft by the Constitutional Court and its promulgation by the President of the Republic after its adoption). The revision procedure is intended to explicitly include agricultural workers in the scope of the Labour Code and thereby guarantee them the right of association (sections 2(2) and 77 of the draft Labour Code).

The Committee notes with great concern that it has been requesting the Government since 1969 to secure to those engaged in agriculture the same rights of association and combination as industrial workers. It expresses consequently the strong hope that the Government will take all the necessary measures in the very near future to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2001.]