Transcript ILO and Human Rights - 開南大學KAINAN UNIVERSITY

Human Rights/Labour Rights
Labour Rights in the
International Human Rights
System
Labour was first international
human rights subject
Anti-slavery movement
 Child Labour campaign with industrial
revolution
 Pre-WWI adoption of labour standards led
by Switzerland

The New International System
created in 1919

Two organizations established:
– League of Nations: Military and political peace,
purely inter-governmental
– International Labour Organization: To keep the
social peace – created tripartite
The League died - and the UN was born
 The ILO survived and became the first
specialized agency

ILO: The Only Tripartite
Specialized Agency
182 Members
 Two special distinctions: tripartism and
standards
 All decisions on tripartite basis
 Each country represented by

– Government representatives
– Most representative organization of workers
– Most representative organization of employers
ILO Structure

International Labour Conference
– Annual – over 4,000 delegates
– Each country represented by 2 Govt, 1 Worker,
1 Employer (but delegations usually larger)

Governing Body
– 56 members: 28 Goverments (10 permanent),
14 Worker, 14 Employer

International Labour Office
Major objectives
Social Justice: There can be no lasting
peace without social justice
 Elimination of poverty: Poverty anywhere is
a threat to prosperity everywhere
 Employment creation: full, productive and
freely-chosen employment
 Decent work in the face of globalization

ILO standards for
workers’ rights
All action based on ILO standards and
Constitutional principles
 Strong supervision
 Supplemented by promotional activities
 Continuous follow-up
 Continuous review
 Assistance for implementation

ILO Standards for Human Rights
Principal instruments: 188 Conventions,
199 Recommendations (2008)
 Regular reporting, with input from
employers’ and workers’ organizations
 Unified supervisory body – detailed
comments
 Complaints procedures
 Supervision basis of assistance

Supervision of ILO standards
Basic provision: regular supervision on the
basis of Government reports, with worker
and employer input – more than 2,000
reports each year
 2 Constitutional complaints mechanisms

– Representations
– Complaints

Committee on Freedom of Association
Article 22: supervision of
ratified Conventions
Government reports
Employers and workers
(art. 23)
Committee of Experts
Observations
to governments
Conference Comittee
Direct requests
to governments
Constitutional complaints
Representations:
– by workers’ or employers’ organizations
– Dealt with by Governing Body Committee
Complaints:
- By governments, Conference delegates,
Governing Body
- Examined by Commission of Inquiry
Committee on Freedom of
Association
Created in 1951 by agreement with UN
ECOSOC
 Complaints of violations of freedom of
association
 Filed by workers’ or employers’
organizations
 DOES NOT depend on ratification: any ILO
member State

Basic ILO Human Rights Subjects
Freedom of association and the effective
recognition of the right to collective
bargaining
(a)
(b)
Freedom of Association and Protection of the
Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining
Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
The elimination of all forms of forced or
compulsory labour
(a)
(b)
Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.
29)
Abolition of Forced Labour
Convention, 1957 (No. 105)

The elimination of discrimination in
employment and occupation
(a)
Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No.
100)
Discrimination (Employment and
Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)
(b)
The effective abolition of child labour
(a) Minimum
(b) Worst
Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
Forms of Child Labour Convention,
1999 (No. 182)
Core Labour Standards
Widely Ratified

More than 125 countries ratified all 8 CLS (July
2008)

Some 7,600 ratifications in all

Ongoing ratification campaign: letters, Conference
discussions, assistance
Other Human Rights Subjects
dealing with labour
See Arts. 6 to 8 of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights:
 Right to work (art. 6)
 Just and favourable conditions of work (art. 7)
 Fair wages and equal remuneration for work
of equal value;

Safe and healthy working conditions;
 Equal opportunity for everyone to be
promoted in his employment to an
appropriate higher level;
 Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of
working hours and periodic holidays with
pay, as well as remuneration for public
holidays.

And more recent UN instruments

Convention on Migrant Workers
– Supplements earlier ILO standards
– Reports sent on priority basis to ILO for advice

Convention on Rights of Disabled Persons
– Heavy ILO involvement in adoption,
independent ILO work
ILO Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work

Adopted 1998

Response to globalization

Promotional approach, geared to non-ratifying States

Assistance to implement principles and standards,
for all States
Declaration of Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work

‘an obligation, arising from the very fact of
membership in the Organization, to respect, to
promote and to realize, in good faith and in
accordance with the Constitution, the
fundamental rights which are the subjects’ of
the eight ILO Conventions recognized as
fundamental.
Declaration follow-up and Assistance
Global reports
 Periodic reports
 Significant technical assistance on:

– Special Action Programme on Forced Labour
– Freedom of Association
– Discriminaiton
International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour

ILO’s largest assistance programme

Based on time-bound programmes

Large number of countries (nearly 90 in 2008)

Significant results
Other subjects of ILO
standards and assistance
Employers’ and workers’ organizations
 Gender
 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (C. 169)
 Social finance
 Labour legislation and administration
 Employment promotion
 Corporate social responsibility
 ……et al.

Labour standards and other
international organizations

Part of global human rights texts
– Universal Declaration of Human Rights
– Covenants
– Different UN treaties: CEDAW, CRC, CERD,
Migrants
– Regional instruments: Europe, Americas
International financial institutions
Last five years or so
 Adoption by a series of international (and
national) financial institutions of labour
conditionalities

–
–
–
–
ADB
IFC
IADB
EBRD
But continued reticence by some IFIs on
relation between labour law and
development issues
 OECD: 1996/2000 book
 Other recent work
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