Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Minimum Age (Sea) Convention (Revised), 1936 (No. 58) - Mauritania (Ratification: 1963)

Article 2 of the Convention. Minimum age. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report to the effect that section 269 of Act No. 95-009 of 31 January 1995 issuing the Merchant Marine Code prohibits the employment of children under 15 years of age on ships. While noting that this provision continues to give full effect to the Convention, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the fact that Convention No. 58, as well as 67 other international instruments on maritime labour, have been revised by the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), which prohibits the employment, engagement or work on board of any person under the age of 16 (Standard A1.1(1)). The Committee therefore recalls that, if the Government should decided to ratify the MLC, 2006, it would have to amend section 269 of Act No. 95-009 to increase the minimum age of seafarers from 15 to 16 years. The Committee hopes that the Government will soon be in a position to ratify the MLC, 2006, and requests it to keep the Office informed of any decision taken in this respect.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee requests the Government to provide a general appreciation in its next report of the manner in which the Convention is applied including, for instance, extracts from the reports of the inspection services and information concerning the number and nature of the contraventions reported, and other details relating to the application of the Convention in practice, particularly with regard to ships’ boys and apprentices engaged on board ships registered in Mauritania, as well as information on any difficulties encountered in the application of the Convention in practice.