Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre la libertad sindical y la protección del derecho de sindicación, 1948 (núm. 87) - Guatemala (Ratificación : 1952)

Sections 256, 292, 294 and 414 of the Penal Code. The Committee recalls that in its previous comments: (i) it examined allegations by the Guatemalan Trade Union, Indigenous and Rural Movement (MSICG) asserting that sections 256, 292, 294 and 414 of the Penal Code facilitated the criminalization of peaceful labour protests by means of an excessively broad and subjective characterization of common offences (such as the usurpation of buildings or the paralysation of means of transport, disobedience); (ii) it noted the Government’s reply indicating that the penal provisions referred to were focussed on safeguarding the whole of the population, and it should be borne in mind that the mere fact of legally regulating illicit conduct does not entail the suppression of labour or trade union rights by the State; and (iii) on the basis of the foregoing, it requested the Government to provide specific information on any instances in which any of the sections of the Penal Code referred to above had been applied in practice in the case of labour protests. The Committee notes that the Government limits its reply to the offence of disobedience defined in section 414 of the Penal Code. The Government indicates, in this respect, that: (i) the Pluripersonal Court of Penal Resolution is competent to hear cases involving the offence of disobedience in labour matters; and (ii) since its establishment in February 2023 until March 2024, the Pluripersonal Court has received 380 cases, none of which concern labour protests. While taking due note of this information, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide specific information on any type of case in which any of the abovementioned sections of the Penal Code referred to have been applied to labour protests in practice.