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Repetition

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Political coercion and punishment for holding or expressing political views opposed to the established system. The Committee notes that penalties of imprisonment (which involve compulsory prison labour) may be imposed under the following provisions of the Criminal Code in circumstances which might fall within the scope of Article 1(a) of the Convention:

• (a) section 262 (organizing public assembly without prior permission of the competent authority or participating in unlawful assembly);
• (b) section 265 (inciting national, racial or religious hatred, or preparing and propagating of writings with that content);
• (c) section 267 (propagating false information or news for panic, in words or in writing);
• (d) section 240 (defamation toward a public official acting in the execution of a state duty); and
• (e) section 241 (defamation toward the President of the Republic).

The Committee recalls that Article 1(a) of the Convention prohibits the use of forced or compulsory labour as a punishment for holding or expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system. It refers in this connection to paragraph 154 of its General Survey of 2007 on the eradication of forced labour, where it observed that the Convention does not prohibit punishment by penalties involving compulsory labour of persons who use violence, incite to violence or engage in preparatory acts aimed at violence; but sanctions involving compulsory labour fall within the scope of the Convention where they enforce a prohibition of peaceful expression of views or of opposition to the established political, social or economic system, whether such prohibition is imposed by law or by a discretionary administrative decision.

As regards the issue of unlawful assemblies, the Committee refers to the explanations contained in paragraph 162 of the same General Survey, where it observed that, since opinions and views ideologically opposed to the established system are often expressed at various kinds of meetings, if such meetings are subject to prior authorization granted at the discretion of the authorities and violations can be punished by sanctions involving compulsory labour, they come within the scope of the Convention.

The Committee therefore again requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information on the application of the above penal provisions in practice, including copies of the court decisions defining or illustrating their scope, as well as information on measures taken or envisaged to ensure the conformity with the Convention in this regard.