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Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Jordan (RATIFICATION: 1966)

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Observation

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Article 2(a) of the Convention.Compulsory military service. The Committee observes that, in 2020, as part of an effort to curb growing unemployment, Jordan announced the reinstatement of compulsory military service, as established under Article 3 of the 1986 National Service Law, for jobless men aged between 25 and 29. According to the information available on the website of the Ministry of Labour, the new recruits must not be workers or students or participate in social security schemes, not have worked regularly during the year preceding the date at which they are summoned, not be partner or owner of a company, and not be their parents’ only son or the head of the family. Those who do not fall into any one of these categories are officially summoned. The period of military service is 12 months, during which new recruits spend three months in military service, including two weeks of community service, and nine months in preparatory training in the private sector, either on worksites, or receiving dual training, vocational or technical training in addition to on-the-job training.

The Committee recalls that for compulsory military service to not be considered as forced labour under the Convention, work imposed in this context should be strictly limited to work of “a purely military character”. The Committee observes that the work that could be exacted under the new modalities of compulsory military service – in particular in the nine months of the service in which recruits must perform preparatory training or vocational or technical training - goes beyond the exception authorized under Article 2(2)(a) for work imposed under compulsory military service. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that, both in law and practice, work imposed on persons under the obligation to perform compulsory military service will be limited to work of a purely military character. In the meantime, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the basis and the modalities of the reinstatement of compulsory military service, including on the number of persons requested to perform it, the number of those assigned to participate in the preparatory trainings, as well as information on the nature and types of tasks they must perform. Please also provide a copy of the amendments to the National Service Law and any relevant regulations.