ILO/95/26
GENEVA (ILO News) - The ILO's Governing Body, meeting in Geneva between 2 and 16 November, took action to stave off financial difficulties while reinforcing the Organisation's commitment to eliminating child labour and promoting fundamental human rights Conventions.
The Governing Body approved plans to increase activities in the effort to eliminate child labour and urged the ILO to become the leading international organization in this field. It called upon governments to take immediate action to eliminate the most egregious abuses against children, including child bonding, slavery, prostitution and work in physically dangerous activities. It recommended putting the problem of child labour on the agenda of the informal ministerial meeting to be held during the 1996 International Labour Conference. It also decided to make child labour one of the major agenda items of the 1998 International Labour Conference.
The Governing Body's recommendation effectively puts the elimination of child labour at the top of the ILO policy agenda. The Office is also requested to improve understanding of child labour, obtain reliable data and disseminate information on the problem, which the Governing Body considered to be an intolerable abuse of human rights and international labour standards.
Discussion papers submitted by the Office to the Governing Body show that the number of working children between the ages of 5 and 14 is growing. And that in some countries, notably in Africa and Latin America, it seems to have accelerated since the early 1980s. In addition to the many children who are being exploited and employed in conditions that are extremely harmful to their physical and intellectual development, tens of millions of children are virtual slaves, working as unpaid domestic servants or as bonded labour.
Since 1992 the ILO has operated a major technical cooperation programme known as IPEC (the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour). Funded by grants from a number of industrialized countries, IPEC is presently operational in eleven countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand and Turkey). A further 11 countries, most of them in Latin America, are set to join shortly.
An ILO official, Mr. Claude Dumont, noted that countries which "had previously been reticent to acknowledge they had a child-labour problem are now coming forward and seeking ILO assistance in dealing with it." He argued that the reluctance which still prevails in some countries is giving way to the knowledge that a realistic approach - along the lines of the one being developed at the ILO - is the best option: "economic growth and legislation are only part of the solution: what is necessary is a proactive approach based on a real political and social will to combat child labour."
Programme and Budget
The Governing Body approved expenditure reductions amounting to US$21,704,950 for the 1996-97 biennium. The bulk of the reductions come in three areas: conferences and meetings, documents and publishing and operating and administrative costs in Geneva.
Reform of the three-week long International Labour Conference, held annually in Geneva, is expected to save $1,277,000. The number of sectoral meetings originally scheduled to take place during the 96-97 biennium, will be reduced from 16 to 10, yielding savings of $1,540,000, but there are consequential reductions in staff resources for preparation, organization and follow up amounting to $1,950,000 - making for a total savings of $3,490,000. The number of technical meetings (excluding the Committee of Experts on the Application of Standards) is reduced from 7 to 5, yielding savings of $470,000. Additional savings resulting from reductions in translation, interpretation, travel and administrative costs due to the reduction of meetings are $1,140,000.
The Governing Body agreed to proceed with a proposed Maritime Conference, to be held in late 1996. The Maritime Conference had originally been scheduled for January 1996, but had to be postponed due to financial difficulties. The Maritime Conference will concern itself with the revision of existing ILO instruments relating to wages hours of work and manning at sea, recruitment and placement of seafarers and inspection of working conditions on ships.
Proposed savings in the area of documents and publications amount to $5,460,000. The number of ILO publications will be reduced and production, and printing activities will be decentralized and more use will be made of subcontracting to private companies.
Reductions in operating costs in Geneva are expected to yield savings of approximately $6,000,000 over the course of the biennium. The bulk of these savings will be achieved via reductions in overhead and administrative costs through decentralization, outsourcing and subcontracting of various functions.
Freedom of Association
Meeting on the occasion of the Governing Body session, the ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association examined 26 cases and came to definitive conclusions in 22 of them and interim conclusions in 4.
The reporter, Mr. Jean-Jacques Oechslin, expressed the Committee's strong concern over restrictions on the right to strike and interference with trade union activities in Kazakhstan.
He also said that in response to complaints involving the unlawful arrest and detention of trade unionists in Nigeria, the Committee "demanded the Government of Nigeria to immediately release imprisoned trade unionists and in the future to refrain from arresting trade unionists who have only been exercising their legitimate trade union rights." The Committee also deplored the fact that in spite of repeated calls to respect trade unions, no measures have been taken to restore the legal status of disbanded trade unions in Nigeria. When discussing the Committee's report on the Nigerian case, the Governing Body adopted unanimously a motion considering that the judicial murder of nine human rights activists by the military Government heightens fears for the safety of detained trade unionists. The Governing Body asked the Director-General to send a mission at the earliest opportunity to visit those in detention and to reinforce international efforts to obtain their unconditional release.
On a complaint involving restitution of trade union assets in Poland, the Committee recommended that assets seized by the Government from the NSZZ Solidarnosc trade union during and after the period of martial law be restored. The Committee regarded it as "deplorable that more than ten years after the confiscation of NSZZ Solidarnosc assets, these have still not been restored."
The Committee called upon the Government of Chad to respect the right of workers to organize and recognize the "inviolability of trade union premises."
With respect to Zaire, the Committee expressed its deep concern over the severity of allegations made against the Government, including arrests and torture of trade unionists and other anti-union activities. The Committee called upon the Government of Zaire to stop arresting and harassing trade unionists and to keep it informed of the situation of detained persons.
The Committee noted with satisfaction the reintegration of fired workers in Panama.
Other Human Rights Concerns
In various discussions, the Governing Body approved the position that the ILO's fundamental human rights concerns are, in addition to child labour (Convention No. 29, 1930) freedom of association (Convention No. 87, 1948), forced labour (Conventions No. 29 and 105, 1930, 1957) and the prevention of discrimination (Convention No. 111, 1958). It noted the first results of the Director-General's initiative to accelerate ratifications of core human rights Conventions by contacting member States to encourage ratification. Since addressing an appeal to all member States in May 1995, there have been nearly 50 expressions of intent to ratify them in the near future. The Governing Body urged continuation of this effort, in particular by requesting stepped-up reporting from non-ratifying States on why they had not yet been able to ratify. At the same time, it asked the Office to increase technical assistance to these States in order to help them ratify and to overcome problems.
In a related discussion, the Governing Body discussed a proposal to add new supervisory procedures to examine complaints over violations of human rights, even when Governments have not ratified the core Conventions. After a lengthy discussion, the Governing Body endorsed the need to strengthen the ILO's procedures in this area and sent the proposal to its Legal Issues and International Labour Standards Committee for further study.
The ILO Governing Body is composed of 28 government representatives and 14 worker and 14 employer members. It convenes three times annually. The Chairman of the Governing Body is Mr. Yvon Chotard (France). Mr. William Brett (United Kingdom) is the worker Vice-Chairman and Mr. Jean-Jacques Oechslin (France) is employer Vice-Chairman.