Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1948 (No. 89) - Iraq (Ratification: 1967)

Article 3 of the Convention. General prohibition of night work for women. The Committee notes that section 80 of the new draft Labour Code, which reproduces textually section 83 of the current Labour Code, provides for a general prohibition of women’s night work and a compulsory rest of 11 consecutive hours, including seven night hours falling between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., giving therefore full effect to the basic requirement of the Convention. The Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention, however, to the fact that in light of the overriding principle of gender equality and equal treatment between men and women, it would be necessary to consider lifting all restrictions on women’s night work and adopting legislation regulating the harmful effects of night work for men and women alike. As the Committee has pointed out in paragraph 161 of its 2001 General Survey on night work of women in industry, achieving effective equality of rights for both sexes requires “a critical re-examination of provisions which are assumed to be ‘protective’ towards women, but which in fact have the effect of hindering the achievement of effective equality by perpetuating or consolidating their disadvantaged employment situation”. The Committee further recalls that member States are under an obligation to review periodically their protective legislation in light of scientific and technological knowledge with a view to revising all gender-specific provisions and discriminatory constraints. This obligation stems from Article 11(3) of the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (to which Iraq has been a party since August 1986). The Committee once again requests the Government to review in a timely manner all legislative restrictions concerning the employment of women during the night with due regard to the relevant provisions of the Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), and to keep the Office informed of any decision envisaged or taken with respect to the eventual ratification of that instrument.