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1. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report and the attached documentation. It notes in particular that the employment of women in underground work in mines is regulated by section 10 of the Safety and Health at Work Act of 21 November 2002 and that currently only women holding supervisory positions or in health-care and social welfare occupations are employed in mines. According to the statistical information provided by the Government, at present some 31,298 women between 25 and 55 years of age are employed at 39 state coalmining enterprises, including 1,394 women working underground.

2. The Committee takes this opportunity to recall that, based on the conclusions and proposals of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards, the ILO Governing Body has decided that with respect to underground work the States parties to Convention No. 45 should be invited to contemplate ratifying the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176) and possibly denouncing Convention No. 45 even though the latter instrument has not been formally revised (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraph 13). Contrary to the old approach based on the outright prohibition of underground work for all female workers, modern standards focus on risk assessment and risk management and provide for sufficient preventive and protective measures for mineworkers, irrespective of gender, whether employed in surface or underground sites. As the Committee has noted in its 2001 General Survey on night work of women in industry in relation to Conventions Nos. 4, 41 and 89, "the question of devising measures that aim at protecting women generally because of their gender (as distinct from those aimed at protecting women’s reproductive and infant-nursing roles) has always been and continues to be controversial" (paragraph 186).

3. In the light of the foregoing observations, and also considering that the general trend worldwide is to provide protection for women in a fashion that does not infringe their rights to equality of opportunity and treatment, the Committee invites the Government to consider the possibility of denouncing Convention No. 45 and to contemplate ratifying the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), which shifts the emphasis from a specific category of workers to the safety and health protection of all mineworkers. In this respect, the Committee recalls that according to established practice the Convention will be next open to denunciation during a one-year period from 30 May 2007 to 30 May 2008. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of any decision taken in this regard.