Chair, 

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. 

The EU and its Member States are committed to the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights, including labour rights. We promote universal ratification and effective implementation of fundamental ILO Conventions and support the ILO in developing and promoting international labour standards and supervising their application. 

Labour inspection, as provided for in ILO Convention No.81, is key in promoting and safeguarding decent working conditions. 

The EU and Kyrgyzstan signed an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Labour Provisions in June 2024, advancing and strengthening cooperation with the country in key policy areas such as trade and investment and employment and social affairs. Moreover, the Kyrgyz Republic became the first country in the region to receive EU trade preferences under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus program (GSP+), committing to the implementation of 27 core international conventions, particularly on human rights and labour rights.

Kyrgyzstan has a workforce of about three million people. We note with concern the latest Government’s indications that there are currently only 28 labour inspectors, and that the lack of staff impacts Kyrgyz regions unequally, when in some there are only one or two inspectors in total. We note with deep concern as well the Government’s information regarding the increase of violations of workers’ labour rights and the increase of industrial accidents, including fatal ones. We regret that due to the limited number of staff, labour inspectors do not carry out inspection on forced labour and human trafficking.

In line with the Committee of Experts’ recommendation, we urge the Kyrgyz Government to ensure the effective application of the relevant legal provisions in all regions and to provide information on the measures planned or adopted to increase the number of labours inspectors. The effective functioning of the labour inspection system is crucial to ensure full realization of labour and other human rights in practice. We took note of the Government’s written information from May 19, in which it states that it is considering the issue of increasing the number of state labour inspectors.

We share the Committee’s deep concern on the temporary ban on scheduled inspections imposed between January and December 2023 and on the renewed moratorium on labour inspections introduced in January 2024 until the end of 2024. We would be interested to know the reasons leading to the Government introducing this moratorium, which is a serious violation of the ratified labour inspection Convention No 81, and which can significantly weaken the enforcement of labour standards and workplace conditions.

We appeal to the government to remove the multiple remaining restrictions and limitations on the powers of labour inspectors contained in Law No.72 of 2007, in order to ensure that they are empowered to enter workplaces freely and without previous notice, to undertake inspection as often and as thoroughly as necessary, to initiate or recommend immediate legal proceedings without prior warning, and to ensure the effective enforcement of penalties for violations of the legal provisions, as set out in the Code of Offences. We therefore urge the Government of Kyrgyzstan to bring its national legislation into full conformity with the Convention. We encourage the Government of Kyrgyzstan to follow-up on the request by the Committee of Experts to provide information and statistics in this regard.

Moreover, we appeal to the government to take the necessary measures to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention 81, to ensure that orders requiring measures with immediate executory force may be issued by labour inspectors, and to ensure the safety and health of workers, particularly in case of imminent danger. We invite the government to provide information on the number and content of these measures to the Committee.

The EU stands ready to support Kyrgyzstan with the aim to strengthen the Government’s capacity to address the issues raised and in meeting its obligations under the ratified Conventions.

Thank you Chair.