Definitive Report - Report No 4, 1953

1. 173. At the Committee's first session in January 1952, this complaint was submitted by the Director-General to the Committee for its opinion prior to its communication to the United Kingdom Government. The complaint consisted of two allegations, one relating to the prohibition of a trade union congress in Cyprus and one relating to the refusal of visas to enable representatives of the complaining organisation to attend the said congress. On the recommendation of the Committee, the Governing Body decided that the part of the complaint containing allegations as to the refusal of visas should not be communicated to the United Kingdom Government. The following analysis refers only to the allegation relating to the prohibition of a trade union congress.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

• Analysis of the Complaint
  174. 174 The complainants allege that trade union rights were infringed by the refusal of the British authorities in Cyprus to grant permission for the Seventh Pan-Cyprian Labour Congress to be held in Famagusta on 30 September 1951 because of the presence on the Congress agenda of an item dealing with the question of the union of Cyprus with Greece. The Cyprus Workers' Confederation therefore decided to hold the Congress in the premises of the Confederation in Nicosia, no permit being necessary for the holding of a Congress in the Confederation's registered offices. The complainants forwarded subsequently a copy of a resolution adopted by the Executive Committee of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions at its meetings of 26-30 November 1951, in which the Executive Committee expressed its regret that the Congress had been unable to meet and instructed its Secretary-General to assist in the efforts to surmount the obstacles encountered by the Cyprus Workers' Confederation.
• Analysis of the Reply
  175. 175 The Government contends that no infringement of trade union rights is involved in this case. It points out that it is contrary to the Cyprus sedition laws to express an intention to bring about a change in the sovereignty of the Island and that discussion of the item on the Congress agenda dealing with the question of the union of Cyprus with Greece would have been seditious.
  176. 176 Because of the seditious nature of this item the Government refused the permission which is necessary for the holding of public meetings at which political subjects are to be discussed, but made it plain that permission would be given if there were no seditious items on the agenda.
  177. 177 The Confederation needed no permit to hold a congress at which political matters were not to be discussed.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 178. It would appear from the Government's reply that the necessity for permission to be given for the holding of a Congress at which political questions are discussed, outside the premises of the Cyprus Workers' Confederation, is not imposed by special laws concerning trade unions but by laws or regulations concerning public meetings, by whatever bodies or persons they are organised, a trade union congress outside union premises being regarded as a public meeting within the meaning of such laws or regulations.
2. 179. In the holding of public meetings, workers' organisations, like other bodies or persons, must observe the law of the land and, under the circumstances prevailing in Cyprus, the authorities have seen fit to impose a legal duty to obtain permission for the holding of all public meetings at which any political subject is to be discussed, such permission being refused where seditious topics are on the agenda.

180. The Committee, while emphasising the principle that workers' and employers' organisations should have the right to hold congresses without previous authorisation and to draw up their agendas in full freedom, recommends the Governing Body to decide that the matter is so purely political in character that it does not call for further examination.