Introduction
The International Labour Organization ("ILO") is an international organization which has a long history of improving working conditions and promoting social justice and human rights. Indeed, in 1969, on its 50th anniversary, the ILO was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The ILO's website, provides both general information about the organization and original documentation for scholars. Cornell Law Library also hosts a mirror site for the International Labour Organization.
History
To address the problems caused by the widespread industrialization of Europe in the 19th century, Robert Owen of Wales, and Jerome Blanqui and Daniel Legrand of France, among others, brought to international prominence the need for international cooperation in setting labor standards. The reasons articulated for cooperation were both benevolent and economic. Cooperation was necessary to eradicate poverty and injustice, not just to protect workers, but to prevent social unrest these conditions could engender. Furthermore, these problems must be addressed at the international level, because each nation acting individually would be at a competitive disadvantage if it imposed higher standards unilaterally. Ultimately, these ideas led to the formation of The International Labour Organization, which came into existence on April 11, 1919 as an affiliated agency of the League of Nations. (1) The original ILO Constitution was drafted as Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles.(2) After the creation of the United Nations, the ILO because the first specialized agency to be affiliated with the UN in 1946. (3)
ILO's Mission
From its inception, the ILO has recognized social justice as a prerequisite to world peace. After the Second World War, its aims and purposes were reasserted and strengthened in The Declaration of Philadelphia, adopted on May 19, 1949, which states:
- Labour is not a commodity;
- Freedom of expression and association are essential to sustained progress;
- Poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity anywhere; [and]
- All human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity.
Organization
With headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the ILO studies, creates, and monitors labor law standards; compiles extensive statistical reports; and provides a wide range of technical assistance. Its Administrative Tribunal also hears disputes raised by employees of international organizations. The ILO has numerous regional offices, a residential International Training Centre in Turin, Italy, an International Institute for Labour Studies in Geneva, and fourteen Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) throughout the developing world to provide technical assistance.
The Organization's basic structure is comprised of the International Labour Conference (the "Conference"), the Governing Body, and The International Labour Office (the "Office,"), which is headed by the Director-General. The Conference is the large deliberative body which meets yearly to set policy, adopt conventions and recommendations, and monitor progress in the application of labor standards. The ILO's unique tripartite structure requires that for each member country in the ILO, there are four representatives in the Conference: two representatives of the country's government, one representative of employers' groups, and one representative of employees' groups.
The Governing Body is the executive body of the ILO. It is comprised of 28 government representatives, fourteen employers' representatives, and fourteen employees' representatives. Ten of the government seats are held by representatives of member states which the organization has categorized as "of chief industrial importance:" Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States. A proposed revision of the ILO structure to eliminate these permanent seats is now under consideration.
The Secretariat of the organization is the International Labour Office, which is headed by the Director-General.
Conventions and Recommendations
After extensive preparation by the Office and the Governing Body, the Conference, usually after consideration in two of its annual sessions, adopts Conventions and Recommendations. These are then brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities of the member nations by their representatives.
Conventions are treaties which do not bind a country unless ratified by that country. Each member country is bound to present ILO conventions which have secured a two-thirds majority in the conference to that country's appropriate ratifying authority. ILO conventions must be ratified as written, without reservations, but sometimes provide for flexibility clauses to accomodate for different climactic conditions or states of development of particular countries.
Recommendations are non-binding guidelines which are typically used when state practice varies greatly, when the subject is too technical to be handled by a convention, or when a subject already covered by a convention needs to be to covered in further detail. Member countries are also obligated to bring recommendations to the attention of their governments.
Together, the entire body of ILO Conventions and Recommendations which the ILO considers still in effect is commonly known as the International Labour Code, but the Code and the organization have an impact far beyond a simple calculation of the number of states which have ratified each convention. In judging the organization's impact, it is important to take into account that member states which have not ratified conventions may still alter their law or practice in response to the principles established by the ILO, often as a result of the sophisticated ILO system of monitoring its standards. Furthermore, national courts, as well as national legislatures, may also rely on the ILO's articulation of legal principles, especially in the area of collective bargaining and freedom of association, on which the Organization has developed a large body of precedents.
Cases and Reports Developed through the ILO's Monitoring Mechanisms
There are several mechanisms by which the ILO functions to evaluate and promote compliance with its standards.
1. Through the ILO's regular reporting structure: Each member nation must regularly report the extent to which its national law is consistent with ILO conventions and recommendations. These reports are first evaluated by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, which consists of 20 internationally renowned scholars. The committee's annual report is then reviewed at the annual session of the Conference by the Conference's Committee on the Application of Standards. The Committee on the Application of Standards then makes recommendations to the Conference, which may act to censure particular governments.
2. Through special mechanisms established to protect Freedom of Association: The ILO Governing Body's Committee on Freedom of Association has the competence to review complaints brought against member states which allege a violation of the fundamental right of freedom of association. Because freedom of association is one of the ILO's central tenets, a complaint may be brought against a member state even if that state has not ratified the organization's conventions on freedom of association.
The Governing Body Committee may refer complaints to the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association for further investigation, if the state to be investigated consents. After the investigation, matters concerning states which have ratified ILO conventions are then referred to the Committee of Experts.
3. Commissions of Inquiry: Under Article 26 of the ILO's constitution, an ad hoc commission of inquiry may be set up to investigate complaints against a member state which has ratified an ILO convention.
4. Representations: Under Article 24 of the ILO's constitution, a kind of complaint called a "representation" may also be filed against a state alleging a violation of an ILO convention which the state has ratified. Under this procedure, a committee is appointed by the Governing Body, which then reviews the committee's report.
Locating Sources of Law Created or Collected by the ILO
1. Conventions and Ratifications are both now available on the ILO's website. (Although the locations which follow are to the English language version of the texts, these and most other documents at the website are also available in Spanish and French.) The full-text of conventions and lists of countries ratifying them are available on the website through the ILOLEX database. A list of ratifications by country is also available.
The full-text of ILO Recommendations are available online. See.
In print, Conventions and Recommendations appear in the Record of Proceedings of the Session of the International Labour Conference at which they are adopted and in Series A of the Official Bulletin for the year of their adoption. They are also compiled periodically in a collection, the most recent of which is International Labour Conventions and Recommendations, 1919-1995 (Geneva: ILO, 1996).
Every year, the ILO publishes its annual "List of Ratifications of Conventions." Updating information is available through Series A of the Official Bulletin.
2. The Digest of Decisions of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body is available on the web through ILOLEX, the ILO's database on International Labour Standards. In print, the committee's reports appear in Series B of the Official Bulletin. The ILO also periodically publishes Freedom of Association: Digest of Decisions and Principles of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO.
3. Decisions the ILO Administrative Tribunal, which hears disputes employees of international organizations bring against their employers, are available in subject analysis form on the web through the ILO TRIBLEX database.
4. National Law Collected by the ILO: As part of its evaluation of labor issues, the ILO collects and studies national labor and social security laws. These are now accessible through its NATLEX, or national law database. In print, they appear as abstracts in the ILO's monthly Legislative Information.
5. Other Internal Documentation: The ILO websites provides the full-text of the ILO constitution, the ILO mandate, a wealth of additional internal documentation from the ILO, annual reports and press releases, information about ILO publications, and articles from some of its publications, including World of Work and International Labour Review. This brief guide can only serve as the most selective of introductions.
Bibliography for Further Reading
The International Labour Organisation
Betten, Lammy. International Labour Law: selected issues. Deventer; Boston: Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, 1993.
Ghebali, Victor-Yves. The International Labour Organization: a case study on the evolution of U.N. specialised agencies. Dordrecht; Boston; London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1989.
"The International Labour Organization," in William L. Keller, ed. 1 International Labor and Employment Laws 40-1 -40-19. Washington, DC: Bureau of National Affairs, 1997.
Child Labor
Brewster, Claudia R. "Note and Comment, Restoring Childhood: saving the world's children from toiling in textile sweatshops." 16 Journal of Law and Commerce 191 (1997).
Diller, Janelle M., and David A. Levy. "Note and Comment, Child Labor, Trade and Investment: toward the harmonization of international law." 91 American Journal of International Law 633 (1997).
Bazzano, Matthew C. "Current Public Law and Policy Issue, Child Labor: what the United States and its corporations can do to eliminate its use." 18 Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy 200 (1996).
McElduff, Timothy P., Jr., and Jon Veiga." Note, The Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1995: a choice between hegemony and hypocrisy." 11 Saint John's Journal of Legal Commentary 581 (1996).
Stop! Child Labor. ILO 1996 Press Kit.
Stroguiludis, Jill C. "Note, The Refugee Act of 1980: an empty promise to exploited children." 29 John Marshall Law Review 995 (1996).
Cohen, Jane Maslow. "Competitive and Cooperative Dependencies: the case for children." 81 Virginia Law Review 2217 (1995).
Ehrenberg, Daniel S. "The Labor Link: applying the international trading system to enforce violations of forced and child labor." 20 Yale Journal of International Law 361 (1995).
Healy, Margaret A. "Note, Prosecuting Child Sex Tourists at Home: do laws in Sweden, Australia, and the United States safeguard the rights of children as mandated by international law?" 18 Fordham International Law Journal 1851 (1995).
Smith, Joan M. "North American Free Trade and the Exploitation of Working Children." 4 Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review 57 (1994).
Moran, Maureen. "Ending Exploitative Child Labor Practices." 5 Pace International Law Review 287 (1993).
Women's Labor
Gatmaytan, Dan. "Recent Development, Death and the Maid: work, violence, and the Filipina in the international labor market." 20 Harvard Women's Law Journal 229 (1997).
Barbieri, Catherine T. "Comment, Women Workers in Transition: the potential impact of the NAFTA labor side agreements on women workers in Argentina and Chile." 17 Comparative Labor Law Journal 526 (1996).
Farley, Christine Haight. "Men May Work from Sun to Sun, but Women's Work Is Never Done: international law and the regulation of women's work at night." 4 Circles: Buffalo Women's Journal of Law and Social Policy 44 (1996).
Ho, Laura, Catherine Powell, and Leti Volpp. "(Dis)assembling Rights of Women Workers along the Global Assembly Line: human rights and the garment industry." 31 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 383 (1996).
ILO Conventions and Recommendations: silent revolution in the lives of women . ILO Press Kit, 1995.
Compa, Lance. "International Labor Standards and Instruments of Recourse for Working Women." 17 Yale Journal of International Law 151 (1992).
NAFTA and NAALC
Adams, Roy J., and Parbudyal Singh. "Early Experience with NAFTA's Labour Side Accord." 18 Comparative Labor Law Journal 161 (1997).
Abbott, Frederick M. "Foundation-Building for Western Hemispheric Integration." 17 Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business 900 (1997).
Englehart, Fredrick. "Note, Withered Giants: Mexican and U.S. organized labor and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation." 29 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 321 (1997).
Barbieri, Catherine T. "Comment, Women Workers in Transition: the potential impact of the NAFTA labor side agreements on women workers in Argentina and Chile." 17 Comparative Labor Law Journal 526 (1996).
Friedenzohn, Daniel. "Note, The Reality' Faced by Mexican Employees Who Lose Their Jobs: a review of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation and two U.S. National Administrative Office decisions." 22 Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 103 (1996).
Grossman, Claudio, et al. "Recent Development, The Evolution of Free Trade in the Americas: NAFTA case studies." 11 American University Journal of International Law and Policy 687 (1996).
Pomeroy, Laura Okin. "Note, The Labor Side Agreement under the NAFTA: analysis of its failure to include strong enforcement provisions and recommendations for future labor agreements negotiated with developing countries." 29 George Washington Journal of International Law and Economics 769 (1996).
Posadas, Alejandro. "Closer Borders: investment and law in Mexico after the NAFTA. A Bibliography with an Index." 6 Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 371 (1996).
Williams, Louise D. "Trade, Labor, Law and Development: opportunities and challenges for Mexican labor arising from the North American Free Trade Agreement." 22 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 361 (1996).
Bierman, Leonard, and Rafael Gely. "The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation: a new frontier in North American labor relations." 10 Connecticut Journal of International Law 533 (1995).
Compa, Lance. "Going Multilateral: the evolution of U.S. hemispheric labor rights policy under GSP and NAFTA." 10 Connecticut Journal of International Law 337 (1995).
Helfeld, David M. "NAALC in the Eyes of the Beholder." 10 Connecticut Journal of International Law 365 (1995) .
Otero, Joaquin F. "The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation: an assessment of its first year's implementation." 33 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 637 (1995).
Perez-Lopez, Jorge F. "The Promotion of International Labor Standards and NAFTA: retrospect and prospects." 10 Connecticut Journal of International Law 427 (1995).
Robinson, Ian. "The NAFTA Labour Accord in Canada: experience, prospects, and alternatives." 10 Connecticut Journal of International Law 475 (1995).
Hagen, Katherine A. "Fundamentals of Labor Issues and NAFTA." 27 University of California at Davis Law Review 917 (1994).
Global Labor Standards/Global Economy
Cross-Departmental Analysis and Reports Team (CD/ART). The social impact of the Asian financial crisis. ILO, 1998. (Available only in WordPerfect files as of 1/00.)
Charnovitz, Steve. "Book Review, Trade, Employment and Labour Standards: the OECD Study and recent developments in the trade and labor standards debate." 11 Temple International and Comparative Law Journal 131 (1997).
Bartolomei de la Cruz, Hector J., Geraldo von Potobsky, and Lee Swepston. The International Labour Organisation: the international standards system and basic human rights. Boulder, CO; Oxford, England: Westview Press, 1996.
Bhagwati, Jagdish N. and Robert E. Hudec, eds. Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisite for Free Trade? London; Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
Champion, Karen Vossler. "Comment, Who Pays for Free Trade and International Labor Standards?" 22 North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation 181 (1996).
Compa, Lance A., and Stephen F. Diamond, eds. Human Rights, Labor Rights, and International Trade: Law and Policy Perspectives. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.
"International Trade and Social Welfare: the new agenda." Transcript of January 7, 1995 Meeting of the Section on International Law of the American Association of Law Schools. 17 Comparative Labor Law Journal 338 (1996).
"Seoul Conference on International Trade Law: integration, harmonization, and globalization." 10 Columbia Journal of Asian Law 305 (1996).
Sengenberger, Werner, and Duncan Campbell, eds. International Labour Standards and Economic Interdependence. Geneva: International Institute for Labor Studies, 1994.
Corporate Codes of Conduct/ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy
Baker, Mark B. "Private Codes of Corporate Conduct: should the fox guard the henhouse?" 24 University of Miami Inter-American Law Review 399 (1993).
Compa, Lance, and Tashia Hinchliffe-Darricarrere. "Enforcing International Labor Rights through Corporate Codes of Conduct." 33 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 663 (1995).
Murray, Jill. Working Paper, Corporate Codes of Conduct and Labour Standards. ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities, 1996.
Pitt, Harvey L., and Karl A. Groskaufmanis. "Minimizing Corporate Civil and Criminal Liability: a second look at corporate codes of conduct." 78 Georgetown Law Journal 1559 (1990).
Footnotes
- The ILO has a good history, see. For a detailed discussion of the intellectual and organizational predecessors of the International Labour Organization, see John W. Follows, Antecedents of the International Labour Organization, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951.
- The Treaty of Versailles, including Part XIII, the Constitution of the ILO, and Part I, the Covenant of the League of Nations, are available on the web through Yale's Avalon Project. The Covenant of the League of Nations as of 1924 is also available there. The current version of the ILO Constitution is available online, see.
- Under Article 57 of the UN Charter, the UN "shall be brought into relationship" with "various specialized agencies, established by intergovernmental agreement and having wide international responsibilities, as defined in their basic instruments, in economic, social, cultural, educational, health and related fields." Article 63 of the Charter provides agreements defining the relationship with these agencies may be in entered into by the Economic and Social Council, subject to approval by the General Assembly. Articles 63 and 64 also provide that ECOSOC may impose reporting requirements on agencies, and may coordinate the activities of these agencies "through consultation with and recommendation to such agencies and through recommendations to the General Assembly and to the Members of the United Nations."
The agreement establishing the ILO as a specialized agency was unanimously approved by the General Conference on October 2, 1946, and came into force when it was approved by the UN General Assembly on December 14, 1946.
Revised 11/02