Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) - Madagascar (Ratification: 1998)

Article 3 of the Convention. Promotion of the employment for persons with disabilities in the public and private sectors. The Committee notes the Government’s report received in November 2009 in reply to the direct request of 2005. The Government indicates that the Act issuing the National Employment Policy (PNE) for 2005 includes among its objectives facilitating the access of vulnerable social groups, including persons with disabilities, to the employment market. It adds that the National Employment Support Programme (PNSE) has the objective not only of the general promotion of decent work to reduce poverty in the country, but also of strengthening the employability of vulnerable groups, for example through the facilitation of access to information on training and occupations at the local level and to community vocational training, the acquisition and strengthening of skills and the mobilization of continuing resources for the training of vulnerable groups. The Committee invites the Government to provide information in its next report on the measures adopted in the framework of the National Employment Support Policy (PNSE) with a view to promoting employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in the public and private sectors. The Committee invites the Government to provide information on the application of the Convention in practice, including statistics, extracts from reports, studies and surveys on the matters covered by the Convention (Part V of the report form).

Article 4. Effective equality of opportunity and treatment for persons with disabilities. The Government reports a certain hesitation among persons with disabilities in respect of those without disabilities as they always consider themselves to be in a position of inferiority in view of their disability. It indicates that this situation is fortunately not generalized and that many persons with disabilities are engaged in a bitter combat to assert their rights. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the special affirmative measures adopted to ensure effective equality of opportunity between workers with disabilities and workers generally, and between men and women workers with disabilities.

Article 5. Consultation of representative organizations. The Government indicates that the new members of the National Labour Council are currently being appointed and that there is no representative organization of persons with disabilities within the Council, but that its members include a person with disabilities, who was the former President of the CNT. The Government adds that the National Committee to Monitor Employment Promotion and Poverty Reduction (CNSPERP) is composed of 30 members, of which two are representatives of groups of persons with disabilities. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on the consultations held in the CNSPERP on the matters covered by the Convention.

Article 8. Development of services in rural areas and remote communities. The Government indicates that Regional Committees to Monitor Employment Promotion and Poverty Reduction (CRSPERP) have been established in ten of the 22 regions in the country and that their missions and structures are the same as those at the national level. The Government adds that two regional centres for the vocational training of persons with disabilities were established in 2009–10 in the north-western and southern regions of the country. The centres provide training in the services sector, for example in hotels and computer sciences. The Committee requests the Government to describe the vocational rehabilitation and employment services for persons with disabilities established by the CRSPERP in rural areas and remote communities.

Article 9. Suitably qualified staff. The Government indicates that the National Centre for the Vocational Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, attached to the Ministry of National Education, is responsible for giving effect to the Government’s policy on the vocational training and social integration of persons with disabilities. Training modules exist in such areas as computer skills, baking, hairdressing and dressmaking. The Committee notes that the results of training for 2009 are in decline as a result of the political crisis affecting the country. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures adopted in training centres to ensure the availability to those concerned of suitably qualified staff responsible for the vocational guidance, vocational training, placement and employment of persons with disabilities, as required by Article 9 of the Convention.