Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Jordan (Ratification: 1958)

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in reply to its earlier comments. It would be grateful if the Government would supply, with its next report, a copy of the Law on Publications and Publishing, No. 8 of 1998, to which reference has been made in its report.

The Committee has previously noted that, since the revocation of martial law in 1991, the Political Parties Act, 1992 (No. 32), and the Press and Publications Act, 1993 (No. 10), have been adopted, and that they contain provisions which could lead to restrictions on the freedoms of opinion, expression and association being enforced with penalties of imprisonment. It has noted the Government's repeated statement that, even where prisoners are sentenced to penalties of imprisonment involving an obligation to work, the penalty of imprisonment is applied in practice without an obligation to work, since Jordanian prisons are not equipped for this. The Government reaffirms that forced labour is not used in practice and that prisons in Jordan have been converted into "rehabilitation centres". It also confirms its previous indication that the draft Rehabilitation Centres Act, which is intended to supersede the Prisons Act, 1953 (No. 33), is currently under study by the competent authorities and will be promulgated as soon as the necessary constitutional procedures have been completed.

Referring to its direct request of 1998 under Convention No. 29, the Committee trusts that the Government will soon be in a position to give statutory effect to the practice whereby no compulsory labour is imposed on persons imprisoned for activities coming within the scope of the present Convention. It reiterates its request to the Government to supply a copy of the Rehabilitation Centres Act, as soon as it is promulgated.