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

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Chad (Ratification: 1966)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report does not contain a reply to its previous comments. The Committee notes nonetheless that a new Labour Code is currently being drafted and hopes that it will soon be adopted.

Sexual harassment. The Committee requests the Government to take the opportunity of the drafting of a new Labour Code to include provisions specifically defining and prohibiting sexual harassment in both its forms: quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment. The Committee also asks the Government to take steps, in collaboration with the workers’ and employers’ organizations, to prevent sexual harassment in employment and occupation.

Article 1(1)(b) of the Convention. Additional grounds of discrimination. The Committee again requests the Government to indicate whether the implementing decrees provided for under section 64 of Act No. 019/PR/2007 of 15 November 2007 on measures to combat HIV/AIDS/STI and to protect the rights of persons living with HIV and AIDS have been adopted, especially the provisions relating to the right to work (sections 32–41) and, if so, to provide a copy of the decrees. The Government is also requested to provide information on any measures taken or foreseen to ensure the effective implementation of these legislative provisions against discrimination against, and stigmatization of, persons living with HIV, such as, for example, awareness-raising campaigns on equality in employment and occupation aimed at workers’ and employers’ organizations, labour inspectors, judges and the general public.

The Committee notes that Act No. 007/PR/2007 of 9 May 2007 on the protection of disabled persons contains provisions concerning rights to socio-economic integration, whereby the State and the local authorities are bound to create conditions conducive to encouraging the employment of persons with disabilities in the public and private sectors, and to guarantee the protection of these persons against any form of exploitation and discrimination (section 15). Provision is also made for tax relief for private enterprises employing a “reasonable share” of persons with disabilities (section 16). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the steps taken or contemplated to give effect to section 15 of Act No. 007/PR/2007 on the protection of disabled persons and to indicate whether enterprises have taken advantage of the provisions under section 16, and clarifying the interpretation given to the term “reasonable share” of persons with disabilities.

Article 2. National equality policy. Access to education and vocational training. In its previous comment, the Committee noted the adoption of Act No. 016/PR/06 of 13 March 2006, issuing guidelines for the Chadian education system, which focuses on combating exclusion from education of groups considered the most vulnerable, namely girls living in rural areas, nomadic and lake-dwelling groups, street children, physically disabled persons, refugees and displaced persons, child domestic workers, child herders and child soldiers, and welcomed the efforts made by the Government to achieve greater equality in the area of education and training. With particular respect to the issue of girls’ and women’s access to education and vocational training, the Committee notes that, in its concluding observations, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) expressed concerns regarding the extremely low participation of girls at the secondary level and in technical vocational institutions and about the persistence of a range of issues that impede their participation, including parents’ prejudices against modern schools and prioritization of their sons’ education; early marriages and pressure on pregnant teenagers to leave school; sexual harassment in schools; poverty and girls’ involvement in income-generating activities; the lack of adequate infrastructure, including water and separated sanitation facilities for girls; and the long distance to school and the risk of sexual harassment and violence that girls face on the way. CEDAW was also extremely concerned at the low literacy rate in general, and more particularly among women (CEDAW/C/TCD/CO/1-4, 4 November 2011, paragraph 30). The Committee asks the Government to take active measures, free from gender stereotypes and prejudices, to promote the access of girls and women to education and vocational training, especially those living in rural areas, and to provide information on the results achieved in the context of the various mechanisms established. In this respect, it encourages the Government to undertake awareness-raising actions among the parents and the population as a whole with respect to schooling and keeping girls and boys at school. The Committee also asks the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged to combat discrimination on grounds other than sex in education and vocational training, including the results achieved.

Article 3(d). Employment in the public sector. The Committee again requests the Government to provide as detailed information as possible on the measures taken or envisaged to promote and guarantee equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women in the public sector, including the results achieved by these measures in terms of employment, promotion and training of women within the public service. In this respect, the Government is requested once again to provide all available statistical information on the numbers of men and women employed at different levels in the public service and, more generally, in the public sector.

Part V of the report form. Practical application and statistics. The Committee again requests the Government to indicate the steps taken to equip labour inspectors with the appropriate resources to gather statistics on the employment of men and women in all branches of activity and to supply the statistical information thus obtained, disaggregated by sex, as well as any statistics available on employment in the informal economy, so that it might assess the implementation of the Convention in practice.