Definitive Report - Report No 87, 1966

Case No 191 (Sudan) - Complaint date: 07-DEC-58 - Closed

1. 35. The Committee has already examined this case at its meetings in May 1960, February 1961, February 1962, February 1964 and November 1965.
2. 36. Sudan has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), but has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 37. Paragraph 265 of the 85th Report of the Committee, which contains the recommendations made by the Committee at its meeting in November 1965 as approved by the Governing Body at its 163rd Session (November 1965), reads as follows:
   • In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
     • (a) to note with satisfaction that the Trade Unions (Amendment) Ordinance, 1960, which has been the subject of various allegations, was repealed on 7 April 1965;
     • (b) to note the Government's statements, in its communication dated 24 June 1965, that the right of organisation is now governed, as before the events of 1958 which gave rise to the complaints, by the Trade Unions Ordinance, 1948, that trade unions are now being formed and operating in freedom and that the freedom of the trade union press has been restored;
     • (c) to request the Government, having regard to its statement that all trade unionists now have complete freedom of movement, to confirm that all the trade unionists sentenced to imprisonment by courts martial under the military régime, including in particular those indicated in paragraph 264 above, are now at liberty.
   • 38. In a communication dated 9 December 1965 the Government of the Sudan confirmed that all the trade unionists named in paragraph 264 of the Committee's 85th Report, who had been sentenced to imprisonment under the previous régime, have been set free and are resuming their former activities in freedom, and that, since the end of that régime in October 1964, representatives of the Trade Union Federation and other democratic organisations have participated in the government of the country, particularly in the Constituent Assembly elected in October 1965. Since the restoration of the transitional Constitution, with its guarantees of freedom of association, expression and movement, following the revolution of October 1964, the Government states, trade unions have enjoyed complete freedom to send representatives to attend international conferences and to affiliate with international federations and Confederations.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 39. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to note with satisfaction the Government's confirmation that all the trade unionists imprisoned under the previous régime have been set free and are resuming their former activities in freedom;
   • (b) to note further the Government's statement that, following the restoration of the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of association in the Sudan, trade unions have enjoyed complete freedom to send representatives to attend international conferences and to affiliate with international federations and Confederations;
   • (c) to suggest to the Government that it may now care to consider the possibility of taking the necessary measures with a view to ratifying the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87).