The 101st Session of the ILC concluded with calls for democracy in Myanmar and for urgent action on the global employment crisis affecting youth around the world. The Conference also adopted a new international labour standard on social protection.
Aung San Suu Kyi stresses the problems of youth employment, calls for help in boosting democracy and invites socially responsible investment in Myanmar.
The International Labour Organization has lifted its restrictions on the full participation of Myanmar in its activities and decided to review the progress on the elimination of forced labour in the country next year.
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chair of the World Economic Forum, called for a “paradigm shift” in the approach to social and development challenges.
Peru’s President Ollanta Humala told delegates at the ILC that economic growth must lead to social development, while ILO head Juan Somavia said Peru has shown both can go hand-in-hand.
“Minorities which ruled with iron and fire will never return,” Tunisian President Mohamed Moncef Marzouki told delegates at the ILO’s International Labour Conference in Geneva.
Zambia looks forward to a process that will “lift millions of our people out of poverty,” the President of Zambia, Michael Chilufya Sata told delegates to the annual ILO conference.
"We are peace workers (...) We can help define what a more stable, balanced, fair world would be like on the basis of our mandate and our values", said Juan Somavia in his address to the delegates.
Opening the Conference, Juan Somavia highlighted the youth employment crisis, social protection, Myanmar, the situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories, the Eurozone crisis and basic labour rights.
Almost 5000 delegates from the ILO’s 185 Member States are meeting at the 101st session of the International Labour Conference. Each Member State of the ILO is represented by a delegation consisting of two government delegates, an employer delegate, a workers' delegate and their respective advisers.