The High-Level Forum “Decent Work: A Key to Social Justice for a Fair Globalization” held in Oslo on 5 September 2008 was the first public international discussion of the ILO Declaration on “Social Justice for a Fair Globalization” (June 2008), and gave rise to new ideas for policy coherence and global governance. The meeting was organized by the Government of Norway and the Financial Times.
Participants included Director-General of the ILO Juan Somavia, his counterpart at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, former High Commissioner of Human Rights and founder of RR, Mary Robinson, and the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre. Other representatives of governments, business, trade unions and civil society also attended.
Of particular interest to participants was the ILO Declaration’s statement that “the violation of fundamental principles and rights at work cannot be invoked or otherwise used as a legitimate comparative advantage and that labour standards should not be used for protectionist trade purposes.” A general agreement was reached that responsibility for ensuring compliance with this Declaration lay with the ILO and national governments, although their respective capacities would have to be strengthened accordingly.
Another important theme was the need for coherence of trade policies with the principles of the ILO Declaration. To this end, Juan Somavia suggested that the proposed agenda of the Doha Round of trade negotiations be evaluated from an ILO perspective.
Jonas Gahr Støre commended this proposal, as he did Pascal Lamy’s for the establishment of “policy coherence accountability fora,” to make national governments, and therefore the international organisations which they form collectively, more accountable and therefore more coherent in their trade and labour policies.
The discussion also addressed the need for incentives to businesses to improve their social performance, given that although the investments such improvements entail had been proven to be profitable in the long term, many companies found them difficult to sustain in the short run.
A final point stressed by Mr. Somavia both at the Oslo forum was the need for a shift from a narrow approach to the MDGs which envisaged merely a safety net for the poor, to a broader international commitment to a “social floor”. This would combine social investments with market opportunities to generate more Decent Work and therefore social mobility.
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