GENEVA (ILO News) - The 91st International Labour Conference, which gets underway in Geneva on Tuesday, 3 June, is to consider a host of issues ranging from a new plan for fighting poverty worldwide, to enhancing safety and security in the workplace and eliminating discrimination.

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia will introduce his report, entitled "Working out of Poverty", when the Plenary debate of the Conference starts on 9 June. The report provides a roadmap for future ILO efforts to fashion a strategy for alleviating poverty by promoting decent work for the working poor as well as creating new opportunities for people excluded from work.

"Work is the best route out of poverty", Mr. Somavia says in the report, which includes an appeal to governments, workers and employers to join forces in seeking a tripartite joint effort to help "free people and societies from the global poverty trap".

Two eminent guest speakers will honour the Conference with their presence this year: H.E. President Thabo Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa will address the Conference on 11 June at 10 a.m. H.M. King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan will address the Conference on 12 June at 10 a.m.

The Conference gets underway at 10 a.m., Tuesday 3 June and runs until Thursday 19 June. The opening plenary session in the Assembly Hall of the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva will elect the Conference President.

Working agenda

Conference Committees are set to consider a host of key issues affecting the overall safety and security of people who work.

The Committee on Seafarers will discuss the welfare of seafarers and the facilitation of navigation, in the context of the need for increased security against acts of terrorism. A key issue for discussion is the identification of seafarers seeking shore leave or carrying out professional duties in a foreign territory. The Committee will review the ILO Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention (No. 108) which was adopted in 1958 and try to adapt the security features of identity documents to present-day conditions.

As part of the ILO's on-going campaign to staunch the annual toll of work-related accidents and illnesses that take some 2 million lives and cost the global economy an estimated $1,250,000 million US dollars ($1.25 trillion), Conference delegates will hold a wide-ranging discussion on priorities and aims for ILO action in the area of occupational safety and health. The aim is to elaborate a plan of action, which could encompass international labour standards, other instruments such as codes of practice, technical cooperation, knowledge management and dissemination and inter-agency cooperation.

The International Labour Conference will also have a first discussion on a new international labour standard on human resources development. This new instrument is expected to replace the ILO Human Resources Development Recommendation (No. 150), which was adopted in 1975. It will reflect new approaches to learning and training emerging in the wake of globalization.

The inherent risks for dependent workers who (for various reasons) fall outside the scope of the employment relationship will be examined by the Conference Committee on the Employment Relationship beginning on 3 June. Based on a report entitled "The scope of the employment relationship", tripartite delegates will consider the challenges which these risks pose to the systems of protection which have been built around the employment relationship. The report suggests prospects for international and national action.

Other items

This year, there will be a special sitting on the afternoon of 12 June where the delegates will examine the ILO Director-General's report on "The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories". The report, based on the work of a fact-finding mission, documents the deteriorating conditions of Arab workers and their families in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and in the Golan, as well as the serious downturn of the Israeli economy. The report offers a technical cooperation package, and urges the donor community to support emergency measures aimed at creating jobs and promoting social dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

On 13 June, the Plenary Session of the Conference will be devoted to a discussion of the ILO's new global report on eliminating discrimination entitled "Time for equality at work." The report shows that while the most blatant forms of discrimination at work may be waning, many remain a persistent part of daily life or are taking on new, more subtle forms.

The Conference will also discuss the situation of forced labour in Myanmar in its Committee on the Application of Standards. In May 2003, the ILO and the Union of Myanmar came to a Formal Understanding on a Facilitator to assist possible victims in Myanmar to seek remedies available under the current legislation and as provided under the ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29). In addition to the formal understanding on the facilitator, a Plan of Action against forced labour is to comprise a road-building project, alternatives to the use of forced labour, and information and awareness raising.

The Conference will be called upon to examine and adopt the programme and budget proposals of the ILO for the 2004-2005 biennium and to consider other financial and administrative matters that the Governing Body decided to bring to its attention. At its March 2003 session, the Governing Body recommended adoption of a zero real growth budget, which at the 2002-03 budget rate of exchange amounted to $448,020,730.

The World Day Against Child Labour, to be marked on 12 June, will focus attention on trafficking in children - everywhere it occurs and in whatever form. The event is to highlight the variety of responses to child trafficking by the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and the international community. These responses range from community vigilance to law enforcement and reintegration of children. The event will be addressed by Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. (See "Combat Child Trafficking" at www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/publ/childtraf/combat.pdf.)