Definitive Report - Report No 70, 1963

Case No 214 (Guinea) - Complaint date: 18-DEC-59 - Closed

1. 31. The complaint by the I.F.C.T.U dates back to the end of 1959. It was by a telegram of 18 December 1959, followed by a letter of the same date, that the I.F.C.T.U submitted the case to the I.L.O. It also supplied further information in a communication dated 31 December 1959.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 32. According to the communications from the complaining organisation dated 18 December 1959, Mr. Firmin Combassa, Secretary of the African Confederation of Christian Workers (C.A.T.C.), was arrested on 15 December 1959 on the orders of the District Chief of Kankan for having pursued trade union activities contrary to the policy followed by the General Union of Workers of Tropical Africa, of which Mr. Sékou Touré, President of the Republic, is also President. It further appeared from the information contained in the I.F.C.T.U communication of 31 December 1959 that another trade unionist whose name also is Sékou Touré and who is stated to have been the leader of the Public Employees' Union of the C.A.T.C was arrested on 22 December 1959.
2. 33. All these communications were transmitted to the Government of Guinea for its observations by two letters dated respectively 23 December 1959 and 5 January 1960. In these letters the Director-General drew the attention of the Government to the fact that, as matters involving personal freedom were raised in the allegations, the case in question fell within the category of cases which the Governing Body has decided shall be treated as urgent cases and he requested the Government to furnish a speedy reply.
3. 34. By a communication dated 11 January 1960 the complaining organisation informed the Director-General that the two persons mentioned in the complaint had been released by the Government of Guinea.
4. 35. In these circumstances the Committee, to which the case had been submitted at its meeting in February 1960, considered that there was no ground for continuing to regard the case as one of those to which priority should be given because of its urgency; but, noting that the reply for which the Government had been asked had not reached the Office, the Committee considered that the Government should again be asked to furnish its observations on the complaint. The Committee made a recommendation to the Governing Body to this effect which is contained in its 45th Report.
5. 36. Since that date, that is since the beginning of 1960, the Government has persistently ignored the requests for observations directed to it. Session after session, the Committee has postponed consideration of the case and, session after session, the Director-General has asked the Government to supply the observations awaited. In all, 18 letters of this kind have been sent to the Government.
6. 37. There is no reason to suppose that the Government of Guinea is now about to change the attitude it has maintained for four whole years. In consequence the Committee considers that it should close a case which cannot remain on its agenda indefinitely and to no purpose.
7. 38. Regarding the substance of the case, the events in question belong entirely to the past, for it is known from a communication from the complaining organisation that the persons involved in the affair, and who were alleged to have been arrested, have long since been released. Accordingly, the Committee considers that no useful purpose would be served by continuing the examination of the case itself and, therefore, recommends the Governing Body to decide that the case does not call for further action.
8. 39. However, the refusal of the Government of Guinea to co-operate with the Committee on Freedom of Association and the Governing Body prompts the Committee to make a number of comments which it wishes to bring to the attention of the Governing Body.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 40. From the general viewpoint, the Committee would first of all point out that, on becoming a Member of the I.L.O, Guinea confirmed that it assumed obligations under the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and that it later ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).
2. 41. The Committee would finally call to mind-as did the Director-General in one of his letters to the Government of Guinea-the resolution on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise adopted by the First African Regional Conference of the International Labour Organisation (Lagos, December 1960). Paragraph 7 of this resolution:
   • requests the Governing Body of the International Labour Office to invite governments in respect of whose countries complaints may be made to the Governing Body Committee on Freedom of Association to give their whole-hearted co-operation to that Committee, in particular by replying to requests for observations made to them and by taking the fullest possible account of any recommendations which may be made to them by the Governing Body following examination of such complaints;
   • and paragraph 8:
   • requests the Governing Body to accelerate as far as possible the procedure of its Committee on Freedom of Association and to give greater publicity to the conclusions of that Committee, particularly when certain governments refuse to co-operate loyally in the consideration of complaints submitted against them.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 42. In these circumstances the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to take note of the release by the Government of Guinea of the two persons mentioned in the complaint;
   • (b) to deplore, nevertheless, the inexplicable attitude of the Government of Guinea, which for almost four years, despite the repeated requests of the Governing Body, has, in disregard of the resolution adopted by the First African Regional Conference of the I.L.O cited in paragraph 41 above, systematically refused to co-operate in the examination of a complaint brought against it on grounds of violation of freedom of association.