Events coverage

April 2008 

• Luxembourg Ratifies 20 ILO Conventions and Protocols - Signing Ceremony -
  08 April 2008 - Jean Feyder, Permanent Representative of the Great Duchy of Luxembourg to the United Nations, delivered 20 instruments of ratification today to the ILO. Many of the 18 ILO conventions and two protocols ratified by Luxembourg's parliament are concerned with occupational safety and health. ...

March 2008 

• Juan Somavia welcomes World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick to the International Labour Organization -
  18 March 2008 - In his introduction of Mr. Zoellick to the Governing Body, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia cited increased cooperation between the ILO and World Bank, and noted that the ILO tripartite members could provide a "vital conduit" for extending efforts to create jobs and reduce poverty at all levels of the world of work.
  • Supporting an inclusive and sustainable globalization: Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank -
• Supporting an inclusive and sustainable globalization: Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank -
  18 March 2008 - Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank, discussed multilateral cooperation and policy coherence citing joint efforts between the ILO and the World Bank to meet the challenges of globalization, during an address to the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization. "We have a vision of an inclusive and sustainable globalization," said Mr. Zoellick. ...
  • Juan Somavia welcomes World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick to the International Labour Organization -
• Press conference highlights: Global Employment Trends for Women 2008 -
  07 March 2008 - "We've seen that over a ten year period 200 million new jobs have been created," says Dorothea Schmidt. "That's a big, big increase and that's very good news, but the problem is the type of job that was created. And we see that over half of the jobs that women have are what we call vulnerable. ...

February 2008 

• A global alliance against forced labour gains momentum -
  27 February 2008 - Roger Plant, Head of the ILO's Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour; Brent Wilton, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Organization of Employers; and Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation speak at a press conference during the Vienna Forum Against Human Trafficking, showing strong support for a global alliance to ...

December 2007 

• International Day of Disabled Persons: Message from Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization -
  02 December 2007 -
  • International Day of Disabled Persons – 3 December 2007
• A video message from actress Marlee Matlin -
  02 December 2007 -
  • Actress Marlee Matlin, "leading lady" for people with disabilities -
  • International Day of Disabled Persons – 3 December 2007

November 2007 

• Speaking at Multiforum 07: Juan Somavia, Director-General, International Labour Office -
  19 November 2007 -
• Speaking at Multiforum 07: Ebrahim Patel, Executive Member, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) -
  19 November 2007 -
• Speaking at Multiforum 07: Robert M. Godsell, Former CEO, AngloGold Ashanti -
  19 November 2007 -
• Facing the "stark reality" of climate change's effect on economic growth -
  13 November 2007 - ILO Director-General Juan Somavia and UNEP Director Achim Steiner lead a discussion about the effects of climate change on the nexus between economic growth and environmental sustainability and how our only choice will be to see how they can reinforce each other in the years to come.
• Supporting the decent work agenda -
  01 November 2007 - In his opening remarks at the ILO Forum on Decent Work For a Fair Globalization, the Prime Minister of Portugal, Mr. José Socrates, called on global support for the decent work agenda, a strategy which he said promotes sustainable and inclusive growth.
• Coming together: a global movement for decent work -
  01 November 2007 - Speaking in Lisbon on the first day of the ILO Forum on Decent Work for a Fair Globalization, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said there was an urgent need for global actors to work together on the decent work agenda.

September 2007 

• East Asia is the growth productivity story of the decade, according to new figures from the Key Indicators of the Labour Market, released this week at a press conference in Geneva -
  03 September 2007 - East Asia showed some of the fastest labour productivity growth rates in economic history, according to Jose Manuel Salazar, Executive Director of the ILO Employment Sector, speaking at a press conference for the launch of the 5th edition of the Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM).

June 2007 

• H.E. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, addresses the 96th International Labour Conference -
  15 June 2007 - On the closing day of the International Labour Conference, the President of Sri Lanka stressed the need for political objectives in his country to be achieved "through negotiation and dialogue".
• Nelson Mandela's acceptance address on receiving the Decent Work Research Prize 2007 -
  15 June 2007 - In a video address to the International Labour Conference, Nelson Mandela describes decent work as “the right not only to survive but to prosper and to have a dignified and fulfilling quality of life.”
  • ILO Decent Work Research Prize - International Institute for Labour Studies
• Professor Carmelo Mesa-Lago accepts the ILO Decent Work Research Prize -
  15 June 2007 - The International Labour Organization today awarded its first annual Decent Work Research Prize to Nobel peace laureate and former South African President Nelson Mandela and to the eminent academic and specialist in social security, Professor Carmelo Mesa-Lago, citing their contributions to improving the lives of people around the world.
• Adoption of the new fishing convention -
  14 June 2007 - Innovative new labour standards designed to improve the conditions for roughly 30 million men and women working in the fishing sector worldwide were adopted today at the 96th annual conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
  • ILO adopts comprehensive new labour standards for millions in the world’s fishing sector
• His Royal Highness Felipe de Borbón, Prince of Asturias, addresses the 96th International Labour Conference -
  13 June 2007 - Addressing government, worker and employer delegates at the annual Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO), His Royal Highness Felipe de Borbón, Prince of Asturias today highlighted the need to “humanize” economic change and ensure that globalization offers “real advantages for all”.
• Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller cites Decent Work Agenda as critical to stemming tidal wave of frustration -
  12 June 2007 - Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller warned the delegates of the 96th International Labour Conference in Geneva of a "human tsunami" of rage and rebellion if more was not done to address the issue of poverty in a meaningful way. She said the Decent Work Agenda was essential to balanced economic and social development.