What is an amendment?

An amendment is any proposed change to the text of a draft decision contained in a Governing Body document, including to any text that is to be approved through the draft decision, such as a draft resolution.

Who can propose amendments?

Any Governing Body regular member or group can submit an amendment to any decision point. 

• Employers’ and Workers’ groups normally propose amendments through their respective Secretariats.
• The Government group and regional groups usually propose amendments through their coordinators.
• Other government groupings can propose amendments in which case the countries sponsoring the amendments must be clearly indicated.

Any amendment submitted by a single member of the Governing Body must be seconded during the sitting in order to be considered.

How to present and where to send the amendments?

Proposed amendments to draft decisions must be submitted in English, French or Spanish by email to reloff@ilo.org.

To ensure clarity and rapid processing process, members are requested to propose amendments marked in track changes in a Word document, indicating the agenda item to which they refer and the country or group on behalf of which the amendment is being submitted.

When to submit amendments?

Early submission of amendments allows the Office to translate and circulate them to the groups and ensures that the groups have sufficient time to discuss the amendments internally, and where applicable, with other groups, prior to their consideration by the Governing Body.

For this reason, Governing Body members are encouraged to submit amendments at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled commencement of the sitting at which the item is to be discussed.

In cases where the amendment to be submitted is for an item scheduled for discussion the following day, Regional Coordinators and the Employers’ and the Workers’ group secretariats are requested to inform the Office by 7 p.m. about the potential submission of such amendment, which should be sent to reloff@ilo.org by 9 p.m. at the latest. Amendments received after that time will be processed early in the morning of the following day

How and when are the amendments distributed?

Once translated, the Office of the Clerk of the Governing Body (RELOFF) communicates the proposed amendments in the three language versions by email to the Officers of the Governing Body, the Regional Coordinators and the Secretariats of the Employers’ and Workers’ groups. Proposed amendments are also shared through the ILO Events App with all participants. The distribution of amendments is done as soon their translations are ready, generally before or at the end of the sittings in order to avoid distracting members from the ongoing discussion.

How are the amendments displayed during discussions?

The proposed amendments to draft decisions are displayed on the screens in the Governing Bogy room in English, French and Spanish for consideration by Governing Body members.

When are decisions adopted and published?

Once the amendments have been discussed and decided on, and consensus on the decision point is reached, the chairing officer declares the decision adopted. No amendments can be proposed afterwards.

All the decisions, including those that have been amended, are published on the Governing Body website by the end of the day of their adoption.