Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2021, published 110th ILC session (2022)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Belize (Ratification: 1983)

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Sanctions involving the obligation to work as a punishment for the expression of political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system. The Committee notes that according to section 231 of the Criminal Code, Chapter 101, a person who continues to engage in a riot or assemble for the purpose of committing a riot, after a proclamation is made commanding the persons engaged therein to disperse, is punishable by imprisonment for five years (sanctions of imprisonment involve compulsory labour pursuant to section 66 of the Prison Rules, Chapter 101). Section 245(1) of the Criminal Code defines riot as the situation in which five or more persons together in any public or private place commence or attempt to, among others, execute a common purpose of obstructing or resisting the execution of any legal process or authority. The Committee recalls that when criminal provisions are worded in terms broad enough to lend themselves to application as a means of punishment for expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system, and in so far as they are enforceable with sanctions involving compulsory labour, such provisions fall within the scope of the Convention. The Committee has stressed, nevertheless, that the imposition of penalties involving compulsory labour on persons who use violence, incite to violence or engage in preparatory acts aimed at violence are not incompatible with the Convention (see 2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, paragraphs 302 to 307). The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information on any case of practical application of section 231 of the Criminal Code, including copies of relevant court decisions illustrating their scope of application and indicating the acts that were subject to sanctions and the penalties imposed, in order to enable the Committee to ascertain the scope of this provision.