Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Libya (Ratification: 1961)

Article 1(c) and (d) of the Convention. Sanctions involving compulsory labour as a punishment for breaches of labour discipline or participation in strikes. For a number of years, the Committee has been referring to sections 237 and 238 of the Penal Code, under which penalties of imprisonment (involving compulsory labour) may be imposed on public servants or employees of public institutions as a punishment for breaches of labour discipline or for participation in strikes, even in services the interruption of which would not endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication, in its report, that there is no information on the application of sections 237 and 238 of the Penal Code in practice including as regards any prosecutions or penalties applied. The Committee recalls that Article 1 of the Convention prohibits any type of compulsory labour as a punishment for breaches of labour discipline or for participating in strikes and requests the Government to indicate the measures taken to ensure that sections 237 and 238 of the Penal Code are not used to sanction by penalties involving compulsory labour (including compulsory prison labour) breaches of labour discipline or peaceful participation in a strike. Please provide information on any prosecution or sentence handed down under these provisions of the Penal Code, indicating the facts on which they are based.