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1. Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest the Inter-institutional Cooperation Agreement between the National Council for Women (CONAMU) and the Minister of Labour, its object and aims and the commitments undertaken by the parties. It also notes the Equal Opportunities Plan 2005-09 and the Immediate Employment Plan Ecuador 2005‑06. The Committee asks the Government to provide detailed information in its next report on how the parties are fulfilling the abovementioned agreement, the objectives attained, any obstacles encountered, and the agreement’s practical impact in the light of the statistical data from the Cooperation Agreement and the Equal Opportunities Plan 2005-09. The Committee also asks the Government to report on progress made in the implementation of the abovementioned plans, and on the practical results.

2. Article 3. In its comments on the application of the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), the Committee noted that according to section 71, Chapter IV (Staff Selection) of the Civil Service and Administrative Careers Act, the Human Resources Administration Unit is responsible for assessing candidates for public sector jobs, and vacant jobs are to be filled by competition based on merit and a test to assess candidates’ suitability to ensure open access to the jobs. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to promote women’s access to the public sector.

3. Indigenous rural workers. In its comments on the application of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), the Committee noted the statistical data supplied by the Government showing that indigenous people account for only a small proportion (14.4 per cent) of total persons covered by the farmers’ social security. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to redress the imbalance in social security access between indigenous and non-indigenous rural workers.

4. Exploitative conditions. The Committee notes that the strategic objectives of the Equal Opportunities Plan 2005-09 include “supporting inter-institutional plans and local and national public policy proposals for the prevention and elimination of work by women, young persons and children in conditions that are exploitative”. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information in its next report on progress towards this objective and the measures taken with respect to the employment of women to attain it in practice.

5. Sexual harassment. The Committee notes that sexual harassment in employment and occupation is not expressly dealt with in the labour law and that no provision is made for any specific legal means of redress. The Committee requests the Government to envisage the possibility of enacting legislation to prevent and punish sexual harassment, taking into account the points made by the Committee in its general observation of 2002.