Press releases

May 1999 

• International Labour Conference Set to Adopt a New Convention Outlawing the Worst Forms of Child Labour
  31 May 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) – Delegates to the 87 th session of the International Labour Conference, which gets underway in Geneva on Tuesday, 1 June 1999, are set to adopt a new International Convention designed to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including child slavery and the use of children in activities that are physically and emotionally damaging to their well-being.
• International Labour Office and Inter-Parliamentary Union Sign Cooperative Accord
  27 May 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) today signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation between them, and take practical steps aimed at promoting social justice, democratic principles and human rights.
• International Labour Conference 1-17 June 1999
  26 May 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The 87 th Session of the International Labour Conference opens on Tuesday, 1 st June 1999 at the United Nations Assembly Hall in Geneva and will remain in session until Thursday, 17 June.
• ILO to consider sweeping universal ban on worst forms of child labour
  25 May 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Organization (ILO), at its annual Conference here in June, is expected to adopt a new international Convention aimed at an immediate, universal ban on the worst forms of child labour that still afflict millions of children worldwide, and in some cases appear to be worsening.
• Forced labour in Myanmar still widespread, says ILO
  25 May 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - In spite of the Government's formal statements to the contrary, forced labour remains widespread in Myanmar, says Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO) in a report 1 dispatched to members of the ILO Governing Body on 21 May and made public today.
• Small-scale mining on the increase in developing countries
  17 May 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Small-scale mining is expanding rapidly and often uncontrollably in many developing countries, employing large numbers of women and children in dangerous conditions and generating a workplace fatality rate up to 90 times higher than mines in industrialized countries, says a new report * by the International Labour Office (ILO).

April 1999 

• ILO Estimates Over 1 Million Work-Related Fatalities Each Year
  12 April 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Over one million work-related deaths occur annually according to ILO estimates and hundreds of millions of workers suffer from workplace accidents and occupational exposure to hazardous substances worldwide, the Chief of the ILO's Health and Safety programme told delegates assembled today in São Paulo at the opening of the 15 th World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health.

March 1999 

• ILO Governing Body Agrees on Follow-up to Declaration on Fundamental Rights Requests action on Myanmar Commission of Inquiry
  25 March 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Concluding its 274 th session, the ILO Governing Body settled a number of outstanding technical questions related to the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 1998. ...
• Juan Somavia sworn in as ILO Director-General
  22 March 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Forecasting "a new stage of creativity and modernization" for the International Labour Organization, Mr. Juan Somavia of Chile was today formally sworn in as the ninth Director-General in a special sitting of the Organization's Governing Body in Geneva.
• ILO Governing Body to examine response to Asia crisis
  16 March 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The plight of Asian workers and enterprises and the ILO's response to the region's economic woes, which have caused massive business failures and upwards of 24 million lost jobs in East Asia alone, will be examined by the Organization's Governing Body in a special two-day Symposium, which gets underway on Friday, 19 March at ILO headquarters in Geneva.
• New Director-General pledges stronger push by ILO on gender issues
  08 March 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Juan Somavia, the Director-General of the International Labour Office, today pledged to step up the commitment to gender issues of the ILO, both within its own walls as well as through its global activities. Mr. Somavia made the statement in a speech this morning to ILO staff and members of the Governing Body marking International Women's Day.
• New Director-General begins tenure at ILO
  04 March 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The new Director-General of the International Labour Office (ILO), Mr. Juan Somavia of Chile, takes office today, marking the first time a representative of the Southern hemisphere has headed this organization. Mr. Somavia is the ninth Director-General of the ILO since its founding in 1919 and was elected by the ILO Governing Body on 23 March 1998.
• ILO's millennium priorities to be aired at budget hearings
  04 March 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Plans to sharpen the strategic focus of ILO activities will be at the heart of a programme and budget proposal of US$ 481,050,000 for the 2000-2001 biennium, which will be presented by the incoming Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Juan Somavia, to the Office's Governing Body members, whose 274 th Session gets underway at ILO headquarters in Geneva on Thursday, 4 March.

February 1999 

• Chemical Industry Opts for Voluntary Initiatives on Health, Safety and Environment
  22 February 1999 - GENEVA (ILO News) - Although the chemical industry is in the forefront of corporate efforts to adopt industry-wide codes of practice on health, safety and environmental issues, the credibility of such initiatives remains hampered by public scepticism and generally low levels of workforce involvement, according to an ILO study prepared for a tripartite meeting of industry experts from 23 countries ...

January 1999 

• New ILO Convention on Child Labour Could Boost Efforts to Stop Internet Child Pornography
  18 January 1999 - PARIS (ILO News) - A new draft Convention against the worst forms of child labour under consideration by the International Labour Organization (ILO) could boost international efforts to halt child pornography and other forms of child labour on the Internet, the Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Michel Hansenne, said today.

December 1998 

• Asian Labour Market Woes Deepening
  02 December 1998 - HONG KONG (ILO News) - The social fallout from the sudden unravelling of economic fortunes in East- and South-East Asia is exceeding initial forecasts and risks dramatically worsening, according to a new report, published by the International Labour Office (ILO) today.

November 1998 

• Freedom of Association remains elusive in much of East and South-East Asia
  24 November 1998 - BANGKOK (ILO News) - Although some progress has been achieved in recent months, freedom of association - the right of workers and of employers to associate freely, without prior authorization - remains elusive in much of East and South-East Asia, according to the Geneva-based International Labour Office (ILO).
• Governing Body Establishes Follow-up to ILO Declaration on Fundamental Human Rights: First Reports to Appear in 1999
  20 November 1998 - GENEVA (ILO News) - In a move designed to strengthen the oversight of fundamental labour standards in the ILO's 174 member States, the ILO Governing Body adopted a programme of action to establish the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which was adopted by the International Labour Conference in June of this year.
• New encyclopedia lists main threats to worker health worldwide
  16 November 1998 - WASHINGTON D.C. (ILO News ) - The International Labour Office (ILO) has published the latest edition of its Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety, which shows that workers today face many of the same dangers that existed in 1930 when the First Edition was published. The traditional threats range from factory fires to catching tuberculosis in hospitals. ...
• ILO Governing Body to examine private sector social initiatives
  09 November 1998 - GENEVA (ILO News) - The social dimension of globalization will once again dominate the agenda of the International Labour Organization's Governing Body meeting for its 273 rd session over the next two weeks, in Geneva. ...