Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Rwanda (Ratification: 1988)

Article 2 of the Convention. Right of workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish organizations of their own choosing. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 51 of Act No. 86/2013, of 19 September 2013, issuing the General Statute of the Public Service, recognizes the right of public servants to join the union of their own choosing, with the exception of “political office holders” and “officers of the security services”. In the absence of a reply from the Government on this point, the Committee recalls that the Convention sets out the right of workers, without distinction whatsoever, to establish and join organizations of their own choosing, and only authorizes exemptions in relation to the police and the armed forces. The Committee requests the Government to provide information concerning the exclusion established in section 51 of the Act, and the process of revising the General Statute of the Public Service.

Article 3. Right of organizations to freely organize their activities and to formulate their programmes. In its previous direct request, the Committee noted that Act No. 86/2013, issuing the General Statute of the Public Service, does not include provisions recognizing the right to strike. Noting the Government’s statement that the Committee’s comments will be taken into account in the context of the current reform of the General Statute of the Public Service, the Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures for the recognition of the right to strike of public employees other than those exercising authority in the name of the State and will provide information on any developments in this regard.

With regard to Ministerial Order No. 04 of 13 July 2010 determining “indispensable services” and the conditions for the exercise of the right to strike in such services, the Committee noted previously that, under the terms of section 11(2), “in the public interest and in the interests of the health of the population, the authorities may prevent workers and employers from having recourse to strikes or lock-outs”. The Committee recalls in this regard that the right to strike may only be restricted or prohibited in essential services in the strict sense of the term (namely, in services the interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population), in the public service only for public servants exercising authority in the name of the State, or in situations of acute national or local crisis (see the 2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, paragraphs 129–133 and 140). The Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to amend section 11(2) of the Ministerial Order to bring it into conformity with the requirements of the principles referred to above, and to provide information on any legislative developments in this regard.