Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

In its previous comments, the Committee noted that under section 198 of the Penal Code, a person able to work may be directed to employment by the police if, as a result of habitual idleness which may be regarded as his own fault, he becomes a charge on the public, or neglects his responsibility to maintain another person who is consequently in need, or fails to pay an allowance due to his wife or child; if, within one year, such person, because of idleness by his own fault, is again found in any of these situations, he shall be punished for vagrancy. Under section 199, a person living in idleness in such circumstances that there is reason to assume that he does not seek to maintain himself by lawful means, shall be instructed by the police to try to find lawful employment within a specified reasonable period and, as far as possible, shall be directed to such employment, under the menace of penal sanctions. The Government had indicated that although the sections concerned are still in force, the Danish Criminal Code Committee, in its report on penalties and release on parole, had stated that these provisions are never applied in actual practice and had proposed that both sections be repealed.

Noting the Government's indication in its latest report that there are no plans to repeal these provisions in the course of the next year, the Committe can only express again the hope that the Government will soon be able to report on measures adopted to bring legislation into conformity with the Convention.