Definitive Report - Report No 217, June 1982

1. 303. The complaint of the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) is contained in a communication dated 30 December 1981. The Government for its part replied on 22 February 1982.
2. 304. Bolivia has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant organisation's allegations

1. 305. The WCL refers to the situation of the General Secretary of the Bolivian Workers' Confederation (COB), Oscar Sanjinés, who, following the seizure of power by the military, was expelled from Bolivia and, it alleges, persecuted.
2. 306. The person concerned, the WCL explains, was the Bolivian Workers' delegate to the 65th (1979) Session of the International Labour Conference. In view of this the previous Government had granted him an airline ticket and subsistence allowances. Since then his own and his family's property have been seized on the grounds that he is held responsible for the expenses of his delegation on the occasion of the International Labour Conference.
3. 307. The WCL recalls that the legal department of the ILO bad on 26 September 1981 addressed to the Permanent Mission of Bolivia in Geneva a letter and a copy of the certificate attesting that Oscar Sanjinés and two other trade union colleagues of his were accredited to and participated in the 65th Session of the Conference, from 6 to 27 June 1979. The complaint is accompanied by the above-mentioned documents certified by the Ambassador and also by the bill for the Geneva hotel where the Bolivian Workers' delegation to the Conference stayed from 6 to 23 June 1979.

B. The Government's reply

1. 308. The Government considers that the complaint concerns rather political than trade union motives as is the case - it states - as regards several former Bolivian leaders.
2. 309. According to the Government the alleged confiscation of the property of Oscar Sanjinés is not due solely to the fact that he was a trade union leader.
3. 310. The Government explains that the National Directorate of the Administration and Supervision of Trade Union Funds (AFOPAL) informed the Ministry of Labour of the fact that the public funds supervisory organisation, the General Inspectorate of the Republic, had sent an account of expenses (No. 6/61/80) to Mr. Oscar Sanjinés Rodriguez. The latter had not in fact complied with the legally prescribed formalities regarding the rendering of accounts in cases where use is made of funds, whereas he had received a sum of 243,450 Bolivian pesos or the equivalent at the time of 10,000 United States dollars under the Venezuela-Bolivia agreement. This sum had been received by Mr. Oscar Sanjinés for a journey to Geneva probably, the Government agrees, to participate in the 65th (1979) Session of the International Labour Conference.
4. 311. The Government points out that under the provisions in force in Bolivia, any citizen who travels abroad with funds from the public Treasury or from bilateral agreements is obliged to account for his expenses and his activities in order to obtain a discharge in respect of the funds received if he fails to do so, embezzlement of public patrimony is presumed to have taken place and the proceedings provided for by law are instituted. The account of expenses is sent to the presumed debtor and the arrears are notified to the Registry but that does not mean that the debtor's property is seized. In the Government's view this is a simple preventive measure, traditional in such cases.
5. 312. Consequently the Government considers that the complaint is not receivable and that Mr. Oscar Sanjinés would do better to account for the expenses, as all other Bolivian citizens do in these circumstances. According to the Government this case does not constitute any violation of freedom of association.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 313. In this case the Committee observes that according to the complainant the trade union leader representing the workers at the 65th Session of the International Labour conference in 1979, Oscar Sanjinés, now expelled from Bolivia, suffered confiscation of his own and his family's property on the grounds that he was, responsible for the expenses incurred by the delegation on the occasion of the conference. In the Government's view, however, the person concerned is obliged to account for the expenses which he incurred. Since he has not yet done so, an account of expenses was sent to him as debtor and the arrears were recorded in a Registry but that did not in any way mean that there had been a direct seizure of his property. In addition, the Government does not deny the allegation that the trade union leader, Oscar Sanjinés, is in forced exile after his expulsion from the country following the seizure of power by the military.
2. 314. From the information at the disposal of the Committee, it would seem that the person concerned, the titular Workers' delegate to the International Labour Conference in 1979, supplied in full the supporting papers relating to his mission in Geneva since the file includes, in particular, in addition to the Geneva hotel invoices from 6 to 23 June 1979, the attestation of the legal department of the ILO with the seal of the Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Bolivia in Geneva certifying that Oscar Sanjinés Rodriguez, Armando Morales Gómez and Nicosio Choque Donaire were accredited as titular Workers' delegate of Bolivia and Bolivian, Workers' advisers, respectively, to the International Labour Conference of 1979.
3. 315. In these circumstances, to the extent that other administrative formalities have still to be completed by the person concerned, the Committee considers that this ought not to necessitate its intervention but it expresses the strong hope that the formal problems which may remain in dispute will be resolved shortly. Indeed, the Committee has always considered it extremely important that no delegate to an ILO body or conference and no member of the Governing Body should be hindered in any way whatsoever from carrying out his mandate, or for having carried out such a mandate. Thus the Committee trusts that neither the person concerned, who is now in enforced exile, nor his family will suffer any prejudice resulting from the fact that he carried out his mandate during the 1979 Session of the International Labour Conference.
4. 316. As regards the forced exile of the trade union leader, Oscar Sanjinés, the Committee recalls that it has already had the opportunity in a recent case to remind the Government of Bolivia that the forced exile of trade unionists deprives them of the possibility of working in their country and separates them from their families. It is also an infringement of freedom of association in that it weakens the trade union movement by depriving it of its leaders. Consequently, the Committee considers that normal trade union activities can only be said to be fully restored when the trade union leaders now exiled are able, after returning to Bolivia, to stand again for trade union elections if they so wish, and perform the offices to which they may be elected.