Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Jordan (Ratification: 1958)

In its earlier comments, the Committee has noted that on 9 January 1984, section 73 of the Constitution was amended so as to make possible the return to parliamentary life, and asked the Government to supply information on any measures remaining in force that had been adopted under the state of emergency and could lead to restrictions on the freedoms of opinion, expression and association and the right to strike which were enforceable by the military courts with penalties of imprisonment (involving the obligation to work) by virtue of section 16 of the Ordinance of 5 June 1967 on the state of emergency.

The Committee notes the Government's recent reports, received in October 1988 and October 1989. It notes with interest the information provided by the Ministry of the Interior to the effect that even where prisoners are sentenced to penalties of imprisonment involving an obligation to work, in practice, the penalty of imprisonment is applied without an obligation to work, since Jordanian prisons (called correction and readaptation centres) are not equipped for this.

The Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to give statutory effect to the practice that no compulsory labour is imposed on persons punished for activities coming within the scope of the Convention, and that it will supply copies of any instruments adopted to this effect. Pending such action, the Committee again requests the Government to supply information on any measures adopted under the state of emergency that are still in force which could lead to restrictions on the freedoms of opinion, expression and association and the right to strike, enforceable with penalties of imprisonment involving the obligation to work.