Brussels, 2 March 2009 (ITUC OnLine): On 20 February 2009, the ITUC wrote a letter to Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (FR), president of the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD), to call for the lifting of the ban on all political and trade union activities. On Saturday 28 February, he responded that a Decree had just been adopted to this effect.
Although trade union activities have continued largely uninterrupted since the coup of 23 December 2008, the ban constituted a threat to workers’ fundamental rights. A number of attacks on trade union freedoms had already been seen in the country’s interior.
For Guy Ryder, general secretary of the ITUC, "The lifting of the ban on political and trade union activities marks an important step towards restoring the rule of law. The essential step now is for the CNDD to set the dates in consultation with Guinea’s political and social movements, including the unions (operating within the CNTG-USTG, ONSLG and UDTG inter-union group), to ensure a precise timetable for the implementation of the Decree.”
In its appeal of 20 February, the ITUC had called on the CNDD to set dates for the application of a series of measures proposed by civil society. These recommendations had been presented to the International Contact Group on Guinea (ICG-G), which had visited the country on 16 and 17 February. They included demands for the holding of elections by the end of the year; the reopening of the independent inquiry into the massacres during the events of 2006 and 2007; the maintenance of audits, and the protection of civil and political rights during this transitional period.
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