Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Minimum Age (Fishermen) Convention, 1959 (No. 112) - Mauritania (Ratification: 1963)

Article 2 of the Convention. Minimum age for admission to work on fishing vessels. The Committee previously requested the Government to specify, in light of the existence of multiple texts on the minimum age for employment in fishing, which of the provisions currently in force set the minimum age for admission to work on board fishing vessels. The Committee notes the Government’s indications in its report that Act No. 2013-029 issuing the Merchant Shipping Code was adopted on 15 October 2013. The Committee notes that only the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Code on the minimum age for admission to work on board fishing vessels, whether as seafarers, ships’ boys or novices, remain in force. It notes in this respect that section 413(1) of the Merchant Shipping Code prohibits the employment, engagement or work on board a vessel of any person under the age of 16 years. Subsection 2 provides that the maritime authority may authorize persons aged 15 years to work on fishing vessels when they are engaged in vocational training in fishing or performing light work. However, it notes that under subsection 4, the maritime authority may authorize exceptions to subsection 2 where the effective training of fishers in the context of established programmes and schedules would be impaired. The Committee notes in this regard that this provision does not specify the minimum age authorized by the exception. While recalling that Article 2(3) of the Convention authorizes exceptions to the minimum age of 15 years, but that it sets a limit at 14 years for children employed on board fishing vessels, the Committee requests the Government to provide clarifications on the minimum age authorized by section 413(4) of the Merchant Shipping Code.

Article 4. Training ships. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the regulations applicable to work by children on board training ships (minimum age, types of work authorized, monitoring of the conditions in which such work is carried out). In the absence of a reply to its previous request, the Committee asks the Government once again to provide information on this subject.