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The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no reply to its previous comments. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows.

1. Since the Convention came into force for the Central African Republic, the Committee has been indicating that the schedule of occupational diseases annexed to Ordinance No. 59/60 of 20 April 1959 does not give effect to the Convention. It has therefore drawn the Government’s attention to the need to amend the above schedule, firstly, by eliminating the limitative nature of the list of pathological manifestations which may be caused by lead and mercury poisoning and, secondly, by adding, among the kinds of work which may lead to anthrax infection, the operations of "loading and unloading or transport of merchandise" in general, in accordance with Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee recalls in this respect that already in its 1980 report the Government referred to the adoption of a draft decree prepared following a direct contacts mission between a representative of the Director-General and the competent national services with a view to bringing the legislation into conformity with the Convention. The Committee notes with regret that the latest information provided by the Government in 1995 and 1998 does not indicate that any progress has been made in the adoption of the above draft decree. In these conditions, the Committee is bound once again to urge the Government to take the necessary measures to amend the schedule of occupational diseases annexed to Ordinance No. 59/60 so as to give effect to this Convention, which came into force for the Central African Republic nearly 40 years ago.

2. The Committee hopes that in future reports the Government will provide general information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, as well as the statistical information requested under Part V of the report form.