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The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

1. Noting the high level of illiteracy among girls and women, their low educational level and their low level of participation in the labour market, as well as the occupational segregation from which they suffer in vocational training and employment, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken to promote and ensure the access of women to education, vocational training and employment on an equal footing with men. In this respect, the Committee notes from the report that, as soon as information is available, the Government will indicate the results obtained and the progress achieved by the VIIIth Economic and Social Development Plan (1992-96) in relation to the promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation for women, following the implementation of a strategy for the promotion of women based essentially on the strengthening of the role of women in productive activities and the improvement of training for women in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The Committee trusts that this information will be included in the Government’s next report. Furthermore, it once again requests the Government to indicate whether this strategy has been extended in the context of the IXth Economic and Social Development Plan (1997-2001).

2. With regard to the application of the Convention in relation to discrimination on grounds other than sex, the Committee notes that the Government’s report states merely that both the Constitution (article 6) and the legislation (Labour Code, conditions of service of the public service, collective labour agreements) prohibit this type of discrimination. As the Committee has emphasized on many occasions, the existence of appropriate national laws and regulations which are in conformity with the Convention is a necessary prerequisite, but is not sufficient in itself for the effective application of the principles set out in the Convention. Experience shows that the prohibition of discrimination is not sufficient to eliminate it in practice and this is particularly true for certain forms of discrimination, such as discrimination on grounds of race, national extraction or social origin. Certain important forms of inequality in employment and occupation are based on types of behaviour, attitudes or manifestations of prejudice and it is important for any policy designed to combat discrimination in employment and occupation to be accompanied by affirmative measures. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would indicate the measures which have been taken or are envisaged for the active promotion of the principles set out in the Convention within the framework of its national policy to combat discrimination on grounds of race, colour, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.

3. The Committee recalls that, under the terms of Article 3 of the Convention, each Member which has ratified the Convention is bound to promote acceptance and observance of its national policy of equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation and to promote such educational programmes as may be calculated to secure such acceptance and observance. It would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide information on the measures which have been taken or are envisaged relating to the education and information of the general public with a view to ensuring that its policy benefits from the support of all the parties concerned. Noting that the Government, in the report which it submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (43rd session, CERD/C/226/Add.10, paragraph 235) states that "one of the major objectives of the educational system is to prepare young people for a life that has no room for any kind of discrimination or segregation based on sex, social origin, race or religion", the Committee requests it to provide detailed information on the measures which have been taken in practice to ensure that the educational system is truly exempt from any discrimination based on all the criteria formally prohibited by the Convention.

4. In view of the fundamental role conferred by the Convention on employers’ and workers’ organizations in promoting the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate the arrangements that it has made for its collaboration with employers’ and workers’ organizations in this field.