Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 1998, publiée 87ème session CIT (1999)

Convention (n° 29) sur le travail forcé, 1930 - Mauritanie (Ratification: 1961)
Protocole de 2014 relatif à la convention sur le travail forcé, 1930 - Mauritanie (Ratification: 2016)

The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received.

Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. 1. The Committee noted that a communication from the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) was received in October 1997, which included an observation on the application of the Convention. According to that observation, the Convention is violated through the persistence of practices equivalent to slavery, despite the Declaration of 1980 abolishing slavery. This communication was transmitted to the Government in November 1997 for comment. The Committee again requests the Government to transmit its comments on the above communication in its next report.

2. In this respect, further to its previous comments, the Committee recalls that it has been examining issues related to the condition of former slaves and the persistence of former slave-like relations for several years. The Committee noted that slavery had been abolished by several texts. It also noted that, according to the Government, isolated cases of its persistence in practice might still be found. In this respect, the Committee notes a transaction which occurred in December 1997 in Timzine, in the Kobony Department, in the region of Hodh el Gharby, which consisted of the cession of 40 persons to pay a debt after a death. The transaction took place in the presence of a cadi. The purchaser freed the persons who had been acquired in this manner. The Committee welcomes this act of liberation. However, it wishes to express once again its great concern at the persistence of such situations.

3. The Committee considers that persons who are in a situation in which their relations are similar to those of a slave to a master, and who are not at liberty to decide on their own course of action, are, due to these conditions, in a situation in which they perform work for which they have not offered themselves of their own free will and which could not arise under a freely concluded contract of employment. The Committee notes that forced labour is prohibited by the Labour Code, but that the Code only applies to relations between employers and workers. The Committee requests the Government to take measures to extend the prohibition on any form of forced labour to work relationships such as may have persisted from historic times. For example, measures could be taken to extend the prohibition of forced labour contained in section 3 of the Labour Code to all forms of work relationships, even where they are not covered by a contract. It would also be possible to provide explicitly that, subject to the exceptions admitted by the Convention, any situation in which individuals provide work or a service for which they have not offered themselves of their own free will is illegal, may be brought before a civil court and is punishable as a penal offence, in accordance with Article 25 of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to provide information in its next report on the measures envisaged to give effect to the Convention on this point.

4. Following the adoption of Act No. 71059 of 25 February 1971 issuing rules to organize civil protection, which limits the powers to requisition labour to specific exceptional circumstances, corresponding to the definition of cases of emergency set out in Article 2(d) of the Convention, the Committee requested the Government to take measures to repeal the Ordinance of 1962 (which confers very wide powers on local leaders to requisition labour). The Committee noted in a recent comment the Government's statement that the above text had not yet been amended. The Committee concludes that the Ordinance is still in force: for reasons of legal security and in order to ensure the observance of the Convention, it requests the Government to take steps to explicitly repeal the above text in the near future and to provide information in its next report on the measures adopted in this respect.

5. The Committee noted that Act No. 70-029 of 23 January 1970 provides for the possibility of requisitioning labour outside the cases of emergency admitted by the Convention. Under sections 1 and 2 of the above Act, various categories of individuals may be required to exercise their functions when circumstances so require, particularly to ensure the functioning of a service that is considered to be essential to meet a need of the country or the population. The Committee requests the Government to take measures to limit recourse to the powers of requisitioning set out in the Act to cases of emergency, as defined in Article 2, paragraph 2(d), of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken to amend this Act in order to bring the legislation fully into conformity with the Convention on this point.