INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE C. App./PV.1

91st Session, Geneva, June 2003

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Committee on the Application of Standards

First sitting, 7 June 2003, 10.10 a.m.

Chairperson: Mr. S. Paixao Pardo

Special sitting to examine developments concerning the question of the observance by the Government of Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)

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CONCLUSIONS

The Committee recalled that its debate was taking place at a moment when the international community was deeply concerned at the events which were occurring in Myanmar, namely the incommunicado detention of the leadership of the National League for Democracy, in particular its General Secretary, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the alleged killing and disappearance of an unknown number of people. In this connection, a number of speakers expressed their concern at the personal situation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and asked that she immediately be released. These events, and the resulting climate of uncertainty and fear, called seriously into question the will and ability of the authorities to make significant progress in the elimination of forced labour. The Committee requested the Government representative to convey its profound concern to his Government.

In its observation, the Committee of Experts had noted that the three recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry had still not been implemented: the Village and Towns Acts had not been amended, although Order 1/99 and its Supplementary Order could, if applied in good faith, provide a statutory basis for ensuring compliance with the Convention in practice; measures to stop the exaction of forced labour in practice, such as concrete and specific instructions to the civilian and military authorities and budgetary allocations for the replacement of forced and unpaid labour, had not been taken; and there had been no prosecution of or sanctions imposed on persons for exacting forced labour.

The Committee took note of the statement of the Government representative, as well as the other information and documents before it. It noted with appreciation the Government's cooperation with the ILO Liaison Officer in Myanmar since she had taken up her position in October 2002. It had to note, however, that the measures taken by the Government to publicize widely Order 1/99 and its Supplementary Order, including the translation of these texts into six languages of national minorities, and the field visits carried out by the field observation teams of the Convention 29 Implementation Committee, still had not resulted in tangible progress in the application of the Convention. It was clear from the information available from various sources, including the impressions of the Liaison Officer, as reflected in her report to the 286th Session of the Governing Body, that recourse to forced labour continued in practice and that the situation was particularly serious and appeared to have changed very little in certain areas with a heavy presence of the army. It also noted that despite the discussions between the authorities and the Liaison Officer in the Convention 29 Implementation Committee, all the investigations carried out by that Committee into the allegations of forced labour presented by the Liaison Officer had found that these allegations were unfounded.

Taking into account the urgent need expressed repeatedly by the Committee of Experts, the Governing Body and the present Committee to move from procedural steps to substantive progress in putting an end to forced labour, the Committee welcomed the fact that the Government and the ILO had agreed on 27 May 2003 on a joint Plan of Action for the elimination of forced labour and expressed its support for this Plan. It noted with interest that, on the basis of the recommendation made by the High-Level Team, the Plan envisaged the establishment of an independent Facilitator to assist victims of forced labour to obtain redress under national legislation. It was noted that the Facilitator would carry out his functions throughout the country. Under the Plan of Action, the Government had undertaken to strictly enforce the prohibition on forced labour in the pilot region. While emphasizing that the implementation of the Plan of Action was without prejudice to the general obligation of the Government to put an end to forced labour in the whole of the country, the Committee felt that this Plan of Action, if it was applied in good faith, could enable tangible progress to be made in the elimination of forced labour and could open the way to more substantial progress. The Committee urged the Government to take all the measures required for this purpose. The reports of the Facilitator to the Governing Body, as well as the evaluation reports on the implementation of the Plan of Action, should allow the results obtained to be judged.

For this reason, the Committee was bound to deplore the situation created by recent events in Myanmar. A climate of uncertainty and intimidation did not provide an environment in which the Plan of Action, and in particular the Facilitator mechanism which it established, could be implemented in a credible manner. The Committee trusted that the Government would take the necessary measures to bring an end to this situation. The Committee hoped that the implementation of the joint Plan of Action would go ahead as soon as the Director-General considered that the conditions were met for its effective implementation. The Director-General was expected to report to the Governing Body at its November 2003 session on developments in the situation, in the light of the discussions in the present Committee.

[N.B. this text is the English translation of the verbatim report (French authoritative). The official record may vary in some details of style.]