Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

The Committee notes that the Government’s brief report does not provide adequate information in response to all the matters raised in its previous direct request. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will make every effort to provide full information on all matters raised below in its next report.

1. Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention. Sexual harassment. The Committee notes that the Government has not yet responded in its report to the Committee’s 2002 general observation on sexual harassment. The Committee urges the Government to provide information on the measures taken and the effects of such measures to address sexual harassment.

2. National extraction. With regard to the Committee’s previous comment concerning measures against discrimination on the basis of national extraction, the Government stated in an earlier report that there is no evidence that national extraction is used to disqualify job applicants. The Committee recalls that the mere absence of reported cases of discrimination is not to be regarded as an indication of its non-existence and hopes that the Government will take the necessary measures to ensure, in law and practice, the prohibition of non-discrimination on the ground of national extraction in public and private employment and to keep the Committee informed of any progress in this regard.

3. Article 2. Policy to promote equality. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that it promotes equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and occupation through its National Employment Policy Declaration, which includes an education strategy, population policy and a policy to integrate women into development (IDF). It recalls that the IDF policy contains various objectives and measures concerning the training and employment of women and that according to the population policy, the ultimate objective in the promotion of women is the elimination of sex-based discrimination. In this regard, the Committee recalls the Government’s plan to repeal the provisions granting a husband the right to object to the commercial activities of his spouse as contained in article 9 of Ordinance No. 006/PR/84. The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to provide information on the measures taken or envisaged to realize the objectives of the abovementioned policies, as far as they relate to the promotion of equal access of women and girls to education, vocational training and employment, including the repeal of article 9 of Ordinance No. 006/PR/84, which is incompatible with the Convention. Reminding the Government that the national policy should address all the grounds listed in Article 1(1)(a) of the Convention, the Committee asks what measures the Government is taking to promote equal opportunity and treatment with a view to eliminating discrimination in employment and occupation on grounds other than sex.

4. Education and training. The Committee recalls Ministerial Order
No. 300/MEN/DG/94 of the Ministry of National Education of 30 December 1994 which established a technical unit to promote girls’ education. According to the Government’s report, traditional attitudes that prevented girls from going to school have been changing, although the participation rate of girls at the secondary and tertiary levels of education is low. In this regard, the Committee notes from the Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) of June 2003, that parents continue to discriminate in favour of boys when it comes to enrolling their children in school and that most women, therefore, lack a modern education (paragraph 3.1.3.4). The Committee asks the Government to provide information in its next report on the activities of the technical unit and measures taken to improve women’s and girls’ participation in education and training at the secondary and tertiary levels. It also asks for information on the results of the measures planned under the PRSP to promote equality in access to education and on the progress made towards reducing the enrolment gap between boys and girls by 15 per cent.

5. The Government is asked to continue to provide detailed information on the activities of the body related to equality in employment and occupation, for women’s associations (Cellule de liaison et d’information des associations féminines), in particular its collaboration with women’s committees of trade unions.