"The rules of the global economy should be aimed at improving the rights, livelihoods, security, and opportunities of people, families and communities around the world." - World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, 2004.
Since its early days, the ILO has sought to define and guarantee labour rights and improve conditions for working people by building a system of international labour standards expressed in the form of Conventions, Recommendations and Codes of Practice. The ILO has since adopted more than 180 ILO Conventions and 190 Recommendations covering all aspects of the world of work.
This body of international labour law was recently reviewed by the Governing Body which determined that more than 70 of the Conventions adopted before 1985 remained fully up to date and the remainder required revision or withdrawal. In addition, dozens of Codes of Practice have been developed. In areas as varied as maternity leave and protection of migrants, these standards play an important role in the drawing up of national legislation.
A supervisory process helps to ensure that standards ratified by individual member States are applied and the ILO provides advice in the drafting of national labour laws. With the adoption of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in 1998, ILO member States decided to uphold a set of core labour standards regardless of whether they had ratified the relevant conventions. These are basic human rights and a central plank of decent work.
The Declaration covers four areas:
Freedom of Association
The right of workers and employers to form and join organizations of their choice is an integral part of a free and open society. It is a basic civil liberty that serves as a building block for social and economic progress. Linked to this is the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining. Voice and representation are an important part of decent work.
Forced Labour
The ILO is also pressing for effective national laws and stronger enforcement mechanisms, such as legal sanctions and vigorous prosecution against those who exploit forced labourers. By raising public awareness, the ILO seeks to shine a spotlight on such human and labour rights violations.
Discrimination
Hundreds of millions of people suffer from discrimination in the world of work. This not only violates a most basic human right, but has wider social and economic consequences. Discrimination stifles opportunities, wasting the human talent needed for economic progress and accentuating social tensions and inequalities. Combating discrimination is an essential part of promoting decent work, and success on this front is felt well beyond the workplace.
Child Labour
There are more than 200 million children working throughout the world, many full-time. They are deprived of adequate education, good health and basic freedoms. Of these, 126 million – or one in every 12 children worldwide – are exposed to hazardous forms of child labour, work that endangers their physical, mental or moral well-being.
As with other aspects of decent work, eliminating child labour is a development as well as human rights issue. ILO policies and programmes aim to help ensure that children receive the education and training they need to become productive adults in decent employment.