Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 2001)

Article 1(1)(b) of the Convention. Protection against discrimination. Real or perceived HIV status. Dismissal. Legislation. The Committee notes the Government’s general indication, in response to its previous comment, that the Inter-Enterprise Committee for Combating HIV/AIDS established since 2002 has the mandate to disseminate legislation and conduct awareness-raising and training for stakeholders in order to protect workers against all forms of discrimination, especially dismissal. It also notes that the Government reiterates that no cases of dismissal arising from real or perceived HIV status have been examined by the inspection services or the labour tribunals. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on:

• (i)activities actually carried out by the Inter-Enterprise Committee for Combating HIV/AIDS with regard to non-discrimination, indicating the target groups concerned; and
• (ii)the measures taken to train labour inspectors and magistrates with regard to the issue of discrimination on the basis of real or perceived HIV status in employment and occupation.

Article 2. Gender equality.Access to education, vocational training and productive resources. The Committee notes that, according to detailed statistical information provided by the Government for the 2011–20 period, the school enrolment rate for girls is much lower than the rate for boys at all levels (including higher education), except for the pre-school level. In this regard, the Committee observes that the Government reports on the conduct of Plus de filles à l’école (more girls in school) awareness-raising campaigns and the adoption of the Strategic Education Plan. It also recalls that Act No. 15/013 of 1 August 2015 on the implementation of women’s rights and gender parity explicitly provides for equal opportunities in education and training and establishes the obligation to implement specific programmes aimed in particular at: encouraging parity; providing guidance for girls in all branches of education; covering the cost of training and education for girls and boys from impoverished backgrounds; and ensuring that teenage mothers or mothers-to-be can continue their schooling. As regards women’s access to the management, administration, enjoyment and disposal of property, resources that ultimately have an impact on their access to employment and occupation, the Committee notes that the Government does not provide any information on this point. The Committee encourages the Government to intensify its efforts to adopt and implement measures to effectively promote the access of girls and women to education and vocational training, and requests it to provide detailed information on the results achieved and on the implementation of the provisions of Act No. 15/013 in this regard. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to encourage the access of women to the management, administration, enjoyment and disposal of property on an equal footing to men.

Access to employment and occupation. With regard to the low rate of employment of women in the non-agricultural sector and their very low participation in certain sectors, the Committee notes that the Government refers to the establishment of gender networks and focal points in the public administration and in public and private enterprises, and to the application of a quota in the recruitment of magistrates (500 women and 1,500 men). The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to:

• (i)take steps to improve the rate of employment of women and their access to employment and different occupations in the sectors where their participation is low; and
• (ii)provide recent statistical data, disaggregated by sex and sector of activity, on the employment of men and women in the public and private sectors, including in agriculture.

Article 5. Positive measures in favour of women’s employment. The Committee notes that the Government does not provide any information on the application of incentives for women’s employment as provided for in Act No. 15/013. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to indicate the measures taken pursuant to the provisions of Act No. 15/013 aimed at promoting women’s employment, particularly under section 22 (employers’ measures aimed at rectifying existing inequalities and measures to reconcile work with family responsibilities) and to provide information on their impact on women’s employment.

Special protection measures for women. Restrictions on women’s employment. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that Order No. 68/13 of 17 May 1968 establishing the conditions of work of women and children has been replaced by Order No. 12/CAB.MIN/TPSI/045/08 of 8 August 2008 establishing the conditions of work of children, and that the conditions of work of women are consequently governed in the same way as those of men, namely by the Labour Code. However, the Committee notes that section 128 of the Labour Code, which provides that “Orders of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, adopted further to the opinion of the National Labour Council, shall fix the conditions of work of women, (…) and shall in particular define the types of work which are prohibited for them”, has been neither repealed nor amended. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary steps to amend or repeal section 128 of the Labour Code.

Enforcement. Civil service. The Committee welcomes the Government’s indication that each general secretariat in the public administration has a “gender unit” which records complaints relating to promotion, training, service missions, violence and harassment. The Government adds that persons who are reported are summoned in order to be given advice but that in most cases victims do not report the perpetrators of discrimination for fear of reprisals. Noting that the Government does not provide the information that was previously requested, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide information on:

• (i)the steps taken to raise awareness among public service employees of the procedures in place; and
• (ii)the use of these procedures in practice, particularly information on the number of cases of discrimination reported to the competent authorities or detected by them, and on the outcome of these procedures.