Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Underground Work (Women) Convention, 1935 (No. 45) - Pakistan (Ratification: 1938)

The Committee recalls that at its 334th Session (October–November 2018), the Governing Body of the ILO decided, on the recommendation of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group, to classify Convention No. 45 as an outdated standard, and to place on the agenda of the 112th Session (2024) of the International Labour Conference an item concerning the abrogation of the Convention. The Governing Body also requested the Office to ensure follow-up for Member States currently bound by Convention No. 45 to promote ratification of up-to-date occupational safety and health instruments, in particular the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), and to launch a campaign to promote ratification of that Convention.

In this respect, the Committee notes that consideration of the ratification of Convention No. 176 is ongoing, and that provincial workshops have been organized to validate gap assessments prepared on that Convention. The Committee encourages the Government to continue to give effect to the decision taken at the 334th Session of the Governing Body (October-November 2018) approving the recommendations of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group, and to consider ratification of more up-to-date instruments in this area. The Committee takes this opportunity to remind the Government that the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference (June 2022) included a safe and healthy working environment in the ILO’s framework of fundamental principles and rights at work, thus amending the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998). The Committee draws the Government’s attention to the possibility of availing itself of ILO technical assistance with a view to bringing both the applicable law and practice into conformity with the fundamental Conventions on occupational safety and health and thus promote the ratification and effective application of those instruments.