GENEVA (ILO News) – Nine Heads of State and Government, six Vice-presidents, labour ministers and leaders from employers’ and workers’ organizations are to meet in Geneva from June 15-17 for a Global Jobs Crisis Summit organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The ILO summit will provide a first-of-its-kind opportunity to discuss policies that are being implemented at the national and international level to address the global jobs crisis.

Among the keynote speakers, nine Heads of State and Governments will address the ILO summit:

• H.E. Mr. Lech Kaczyński, President of the Republic of Poland
• H.E. Ms Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland
• H.E. Mr. Armando Guebuza, President of the Republic of Mozambique
• H.E. Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil
• H.E. Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic
• H.E. Ms Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President of the Argentine Republic
• H.E. Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, President of the Togolese Republic
• H.E. Mr. Tertius Zongo, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso
• The Honourable Mr. Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica

The three-day ILO summit, which is part of ILO’s International Labour Conference, will include four high-level panels on the following topics: global and regional coordination, development cooperation, managing the national jobs agenda and rights at work, social dialogue and enterprise survival.

For more information on the ILO Summit on the Global Jobs Crisis, please visit www.ilo.org or contact the Department of Communication and Public Information of the ILO at communication@ilo.org - +4122/799-7912.

The International Labour Conference is the world’s largest gathering of governments, employers and workers. It meets every June in Geneva bringing together approximately 4,000 delegates from ILO’s 183 member States. Each country is represented by a tripartite delegation consisting of government, employer and worker representatives.

The Conference, which is often called an international parliament of the world of work, has several main tasks which include the crafting and adoption of international labour standards and their follow-up and application at the national level. The conference is also a forum where social and labour questions of importance to the entire world are discussed.