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

Convenio sobre la abolición del trabajo forzoso, 1957 (núm. 105) - Burkina Faso (Ratificación : 1997)

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Article 1(a) of the Convention. Imposition of penalties involving compulsory labour as a punishment for expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system. Decree on general mobilization and state of emergency. The Committee notes that, under the terms of Decree No. 2023-0475 of 19 April 2023 on general mobilization and state of emergency, to which the Government refers in its report, the possibility to “requisition persons, property and services” and to call up “defence work, individually or collectively” (section 2) to defend the country against terrorist acts, is authorized for a period of 12 months (extended by decree for 12 additional months as from 19 April 2024). In this regard, the Committee notes that, according to the 2022-23 report of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on the situation of human rights in Burkina Faso, issued in May 2024, within the context of the general mobilization, several human rights defenders, politicians and leaders of civil society organizations have been arrested and have been the subject of arbitrary detention before being taken to the theatre of operations under requisition orders, despite court decisions that found these requisition orders illegal and in violation of fundamental freedoms, particularly “in light of their relationship to the views expressed by those who were requisitioned” and because they are not “intended to secure the territory or maintain order”. The Committee also notes that, in its concluding observations of 15 March 2024, the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances expressed concern at reports of threats and reprisals against human rights defenders (CED/C/BFA/OAI/1). The Committee requests the Government to ensure that powers of requisition are not used to impose compulsory labour on persons who express political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system.

Article 1(d). Criminal penalties for participation in a strike. In reply to its previous request concerning the nature of the “criminal penalties” that may be applied under section 386 of the Labour Code, which prohibits the occupation of the workplace or its immediate surroundings in the event of the exercise of the right to strike, the Committee notes that the Government refers to sections 354-6 to 354-9 of the Penal Code, which provide for the application of a sentence of imprisonment (involving an obligation to work under section 181 of Act No. 10-2017/AN on the prison system) for the organization of or participation in any “unlawful demonstration”. The Government adds that the Labour Code is still under review and that the various concerns expressed by the Committee will be taken into account.

The Committee recalls that Article 1(d) of the Convention prohibits the use of any form of compulsory labour, including compulsory prison labour, as a punishment for having participated peacefully in a strike. Also referring to the comments that it made in 2023 on the application of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), the Committee trusts that the Government will take all the necessary measures to ensure that, within the framework of the current revision of the Labour Code, the legislation no longer provides for the possibility of the application, against persons who participate peacefully in strikes, of penal sanctions under the terms of which compulsory prison labour may be imposed upon them. In the meantime, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on any criminal penalty applied in practice under section 386 of the Labour Code.

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