International Labour Organization

International Labour Organization

File:ILO logo.svg
Established	1919
Type	UN agency
Legal status	active
Website	www.ilo.org

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

As stated by its Director-General, "the primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity." In working towards this goal, the organization seeks to promote employment creation, strengthen fundamental principles and rights at work - workers' rights, improve social protection, and promote social dialogue as well as provide relevant information, training and technical assistance. At present, the ILO's work is organized into four thematic groupings or sectors: (1) Standards and fundamental principles and rights at work; (2) Employment; (3) Social Protection; and (4) Social Dialogue.

Founded in 1919, it was formed through the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It became a member of the UN system after the demise of the League and the formation of the UN at the end of World War II. Its Constitution, as amended to date, includes the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) on the aims and purposes of the Organization. Its secretariat is known as the International Labour Office and its current Director-General is Juan Somavia (since 1999).

International Labour Conference

The ILO hosts the International Labour Conference in Geneva every year in June. At the Conference, Conventions and Recommendations are crafted and adopted by majority decision. The Conference also makes decisions on the ILO's general policy, work programme and budget.

Each member state is represented at the International Labour Conference by four delegates: two government delegates, an employer delegate and a worker delegate. All delegates have individual voting rights, and all votes are equal, regardless of the population of the delegate's member state. The employer and worker delegates are normally chosen in agreement with the most representative national organizations of employers and workers. Usually, the workers' delegates coordinate their voting, as do the employers' delegates.

Adoption of Conventions

One of the principal functions of the ILO involves setting international labour standards through the adoption of Conventions and Recommendations covering a broad spectrum of labour-related subjects and which, together, are sometimes referred to as the International Labour Code.

Adoption of a Convention by the International Labour Conference allows governments to ratify it, and the Convention then becomes a treaty in international law when a specified number of governments have ratified it.

Ratification of Conventions

The coming into force of a Convention results in a legal obligation to apply its provisions by the nations that have ratified it. Ratification of a Convention is voluntary. Conventions that have not been ratified by member states have the same legal force as Recommendations. Governments are required to submit reports detailing their compliance with the obligations of the Conventions they have ratified. Every year the International Labour Conference's Committee on the Application of Standards examines a number of alleged breaches of international labour standards. In recent years, one of the member states that has received the most attention is Myanmar / Burma, as the country has repeatedly been criticized for its failure to protect its citizens against forced labour exacted by the army.

Subjects of Conventions

All adopted ILO Conventions are considered international labour standards regardless of how many national governments have ratified them. The topics covered by them cover a wide range of issues, from freedom of association to health and safety at work, working conditions in the maritime sector, night work, discrimination, child labour and forced labour.

1997 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

In 1997 the International Labour Conference adopted the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. This Declaration identified four issue areas as "core" or fundamental international labour standards, meaning that any ILO member state should have ratified at least the eight key Conventions, which concern freedom of association, the right to organize and collective bargaining; discrimination; forced labour; and child labour. These core or fundamental standards have all been ratified by the overwhelming majority of ILO member states.

Criticism of the establishment of core or fundamental labour standards

Despite the rapid ratification by many countries of the eight Conventions identified as fundamental, a number of academics and activists have criticized the ILO for creating a false division between different international labour standards, many of which cover specific and concrete human rights topics but were excluded from the 1998 Declaration, such as those on health and safety and working hours. To add further confusion, the new core conventions are often exclusively referred to as being human rights, whereas before all international labour standards were viewed as human rights. Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University, has written on this narrowing of international labour standards in the name of human rights advocacy.

Recommendations

Recommendations do not have the binding force of Conventions, and are not subject to ratification by member countries. Recommendations may be adopted at the same time as Conventions to supplement the latter with additional or more detailed provisions. The intent of these recommendations is often to more precisely detail the principles of related Conventions.

In other cases Recommendations may be adopted separately, and address issues not covered by, or unrelated to any particular Convention.

Child labour

The ILO has a specialist programme addressing child labour, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

HIV/AIDS

Under the name ILOAIDS, the ILO created the Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work as a document providing principles for "policy development and practical guidelines for programmes at enterprise, community and national levels." Including:

• prevention of HIV
• management and mitigation of the impact of AIDS on the world of work
• care and support of workers infected and affected by HIV/AIDS
• elimination of stigma and discrimination on the basis of real or perceived HIV status.

Nobel Peace Prize

The organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969.

See also

• International Labour Conference
• International Labour Organization Conventions
• Better Work
• Decent work Template:UN portal

External links

• Official site of the International Labour Organization
• About the International Labour Organization
• Constitution of the International Labour Organization
• International Labour Conference
• ILO Conventions
• ILO Recommendations
• NATLEX Database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation
• ILO Photo Library
• The International Labour Organization: A Handbook for Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, London, Minority Rights Group, 2002