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Article 3 of the Convention. Prohibition of night work of women. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the Government’s statement that it is making every effort to improve employment opportunities for women and to ease the constraints hindering their employment. The Government adds that a thorough study of the 1990 Protocol to Convention No. 89 will be carried out in the light of prevailing social conditions before any decision about its possible ratification is taken.

In this connection, the Committee wishes to draw once more the Government’s attention to the fact that member States are increasingly required to initiate a review process of their protective legislation aiming at the elimination of any provisions contrary to the principle of equal treatment between men and women, except those connected with maternity protection, and with due account being taken of national circumstances. This trend reflects also the growing expectation that the same standards of protection should apply to men and women alike in accordance with the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), and also the widely ratified UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (to which, parenthetically, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya acceded in 1989).

In the light of these observations, the Committee hopes that the Government will give favourable consideration to the possibility of ratifying the Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), which is not devised as a gender-specific instrument but focuses on the protection of all night workers in all branches and occupations. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or envisaged in this regard.