Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2013, Publicación: 103ª reunión CIT (2014)

Convenio sobre la edad mínima (trabajo subterráneo), 1965 (núm. 123) - Rwanda (Ratificación : 1970)

Article 4(1) and (2) of the Convention. Penalties and appropriate inspection services. In its previous comments, the Committee noted the Government’s statement that information on the implementation of the provisions which require inspections in mines and quarries to be carried out by experts would be provided once the child labour survey was finalized.

The Committee observes that, according to the Child Work and Child Labour Survey of Rwanda of 2013, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, 110,742 children aged 6–17 years (3 per cent of the total population of children of that age in Rwanda) work outside their homes. The Committee notes that 3,099 children aged 6–17 were found to be working in mining and quarrying (2,480 boys and 619 girls), representing 2.8 per cent of the total number of children working outside their homes. Moreover, it observes that of these children, 133 were between 6 and 9 years of age, 1,269 were between 10 and 15 years of age, and 1,697 were 16 and 17 years of age. The Committee requests the Government to continue providing information on the number of children working in mines and quarries, and requests the Government to provide information on the penalties applied to persons who engage children under the minimum age for admission to work in mines and quarries.

Article 4(4) and (5). Records of employment to be made available to labour inspectors and workers’ representatives. In its previous comments, the Committee recalled that, under the terms of the Convention, the employers’ registers presented to the inspectors must indicate, for each person aged below 20 years employed or working underground, in addition to his/her date of birth, duly certified if possible, the date on which the worker was employed or worked underground at the enterprise for the first time. The Committee requested the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that workers aged between 18 and 20 years are included in the employers’ registers.

The Committee notes the Government’s information that section 7 of Ministerial Order No. 06 of 13 July 2010 provides that every employer in the institutions mentioned in section 6 – which includes mines and quarries – shall request a birth certificate from a worker before signing an employment contract with him or her. In addition, by virtue of section 6 of Ministerial Order No. 10 of 28 July 2010 determining the modalities of declaration of the enterprise, workers and nature of employer register, any employer shall keep at the workplace an employer register, the second part of which shows the identification of the employees. The Committee observes that the model register in Annex II of the Ministerial Order shows that employers must register the date of birth, date of commencement, and date of end of contract of every employee.