Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 2025, Publicación: 114ª reunión CIT (2026)

Convenio sobre la edad mínima, 1973 (núm. 138) - Congo (Ratificación : 1999)

Article 2(3) of the Convention. Age of completion of compulsory schooling. In its previous comments, the Committee asked the Government to ensure that children who have not yet reached the minimum age for admission to employment or work, set at 14 years, are integrated in the education system, and to provide detailed information on the specific measures taken in this respect in the context of the sectoral education strategy and the National Action Plan to improve the quality of life of indigenous populations, and on the results achieved. The Committee also encouraged the Government to take appropriate steps to improve completion rates, which remain relatively low. In the absence of information from the Government, the Committee once again requests the Government to intensify its efforts to ensure that children who have not yet reached the minimum age for admission to employment or work, set at 14 years, are integrated in the education system. It once again requests the Government to provide detailed information on the concrete measures taken in this respect in the context of the sectoral education strategy and the National Action Plan to improve the quality of life of indigenous populations, and also on the results achieved. The Committee also encourages the Government to take appropriate steps to improve completion rates, which remain relatively low. In this regard, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide detailed statistics on school attendance, in particular the completion rate of children under 14 years of age in both rural and urban areas, disaggregated by age and sex.

Article 3(2) and (3). Determination of hazardous types of work and age of admission to hazardous work. In its previous comments, the Committee asked the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the list of hazardous types of work prohibited for children under 18 years of age contained in Order No. 2224 of 24 October 1953 is revised and that the decree implementing section 68 of the Child Protection Act (Act No. 4-2010 of 14 June 2010) is adopted.

The Committee notes the Government’s indications that the objectives of the national road map for 2023–25 in the context of the Alliance 8.7 partnership, developed with the support of the ILO, include in particular the revision of the list of hazardous types of work prohibited for children under 18 years of age in all branches of economic activity. In this regard, the Government indicates that a report was presented in February 2024 to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) with a view to harmonizing the national legislation with the Convention on the Rights of the Child in light of the new Constitution adopted in 2015, and to incorporating the rights of the child and related principles into the revision of the legal codes. The Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure the adoption of the decree determining the list of hazardous types of work prohibited for children under 18 years of age, under section 68(d) of the Child Protection Act (Act No. 4-2010), in consultation with the social partners. It requests the Government to provide information on progress made in this regard.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.