Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2024, publiée 113ème session CIT (2025)

Convention (n° 111) concernant la discrimination (emploi et profession), 1958 - Tchad (Ratification: 1966)

Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. Grounds of discrimination. Legislation. The Committee notes with concern that the Labour Code, which it had noted was under preparation in its comment adopted in 2013, is still in the process of being adopted. The Committee is bound to hope that the Government will soon be in a position to report the adoption of the new Labour Code and requests it to ensure that it contains provisions explicitly prohibiting any direct or indirect discrimination based, as a minimum, on all the grounds enumerated in Article 1(1)(a), and particularly race, colour and national extraction in light of the multi-ethnic composition of the country, at all stages of employment and occupation. The Committee requests the Government to provide a copy of the Labour Code as soon as it has been adopted, and of any implementing texts in relation to non-discrimination and equality in employment and occupation.

Discrimination based on sex and equality of treatment between men and women. The Committee once again recalls that, in a previous report, the Government acknowledged that section 9 of Ordinance No. 006/PR/84 of 1984, which gives the husband the right to object to his spouse’s activities, is completely outdated, and it undertook to take measures to repeal this provision and specified that occupational segregation between men and women is due in part to the significant levels of illiteracy and to social factors. The Committee requested the Government on that occasion to take the necessary measures. Noting the absence of a reply from the Government on this subject, the Committee notes that, according to the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice (in its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council on its mission to Chad in December 2017), the female literacy rate was 22 per cent, compared with 54 per cent for men. With a view to combating inequality between men and women, it called on the Government to place increased focus on enrolling girls in school and keeping them there; on enabling women, including rural women, legally, educationally and economically, to free themselves from the yoke of a patriarchal system that upholds the interests of the dominant male class; and to adopt an attitude of zero tolerance regarding sexual and gender-based violence as part of the ongoing fight against the impunity and corruption that permeate society in Chad and widen the inequality gap (A/HRC/38/46/Add.2, 8 May 2018, paragraphs 49 and 70). The Committee also notes that, in the report that it submitted to the Human Rights Council in November 2023, the Government indicates that it has: (1) established a department dedicated to promoting the rights and education of girls in the Ministry of Education; (2) established a programme on the school enrolment and continuing education of girls; and (3) adopted a National Gender Policy and a related five-year plan of action (the implementation of which is recommended by the United Nations country team) (A/HRC/WG.6/45/TCD/1, 10 November 2023, paragraphs 60–61 and 80; and A/HRC/WG.6/45/TCD/2, 17 November 2023, paragraph 43). In light of the above, the Committee urges the Government to formally repeal section 9 of the 1984 Ordinance and to take the necessary measures to: (i) actively combat stereotypes and prejudices concerning the vocational capacities and aspirations of men and women; (ii) raise awareness among parents and the population as a whole about the importance of girls and boys attending and remaining at school; and (iii) promote the access of girls and women to a broader range of training courses and occupations, particularly those that are traditionally occupied by men. Please provide information on the measures adopted in this regard, particularly within the framework of the programme on the school enrolment and continuing education of girls and the National Gender Policy and its plan of action; and on the results achieved (including statistics on the progressive increase in the school attendance rate of girls and the labour market participation rate of women).

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