Events in the international community

United Nations General Assembly

57th Session, New York, 2002

Statement by Caroline Lewis, ILO Liaison Office, New York

Agenda Item 85: Sectoral policy questions
    (b) Business and development

When the Secretary-General asked the International Labour Organization (ILO) to support the Global Compact, the ILO immediately responded positively for two reasons.

Most important is the fact that four of the nine principles on which the Global Compact is based are taken from the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, namely: that businesses should uphold freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; ensure the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour; work towards the effective abolition of child labour; and eliminate discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. The Declaration, adopted by the International Labour Conference in 1998, defines the core values that every member State of the ILO is committed to respecting and promoting. The Global Compact provides the means for the ILO to create a greater understanding of, and support for, the four principles of this Declaration in the business community.

Another reason the ILO is a strong supporter of the Global Compact is because the ILO itself is a partnership between business and society. As many of you know, the ILO was created almost a century ago to provide a platform for governments, employers and workers to come together and reach agreement on issues affecting the world of work. The ILO is a tripartite organization in which all decisions are taken on the basis of consensus between these three constituents. Over the years this has led to the development and adoption of an important body of international labour standards. These standards cover not only core values as reflected in the principles of the Global Compact, but also other issues of importance to the world of work, such as employment policy and promotion, vocational training, occupational safety and health, labour administration and industrial relations.

Since the Global Compact pursues a dialogue model very similar to the ILO’s approach to social dialogue, it is only logical that the ILO’s main international constituents, the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), are also active supporters of the Global Compact.

The ILO’s role in the Global Compact is to help companies translate the four labour principles into management practice. It does this through involvement in the three main areas of the Global Compact’s activities:

In the case of the Global Compact Learning Forum, the ILO analyses the case studies submitted by companies to identify and disseminate good practices and lessons learned in the area of labour, and helps companies learn from each others’ experiences and achieve internal change. These case studies are posted on the ILO and Global Compact websites and will be used in the Global Compact training materials that the ILO is currently developing. The training materials are aimed at different types of managers, from chief executives to mid level managers in companies big and small, so that they can give concrete meaning to the Global Compact principles in their management systems.

The ILO is also active in the so-called Global Compact Issues Dialogues. For instance, in the Dialogue on the role of enterprises in zones of conflict that started last year, the ILO was able to draw on its expertise in promoting employment-intensive investment, small-scale enterprise development and skills training in such countries as Cambodia, Mozambique and other crisis-affected countries. The ILO contribution to this year’s dialogue on sustainable development ensured that due attention was paid to the social aspects of sustainable development. Next year the ILO will take the lead in organizing a Global Compact Dialogue on the subject of diversity in the workplace.

Finally, Global Compact Country Outreach is also actively supported by the ILO, with the Organization taking the lead in Global Compact events and bringing partners together.

The ILO has long been active in the area of corporate social responsibility. In 1977, the ILO’s Governing Body adopted the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy. This Declaration is more relevant today than ever before. It outlines different types of initiatives that business, governments and workers can take in such areas as employment, training, working conditions, occupational safety and health and industrial relations. The Declaration is an ideal complement to the Global Compact. It is also important to note that it addresses a wider audience than the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises. Rather than a model code of conduct, the Declaration is a development tool that contains specific guidance to help companies apply ILO principles in general and establish partnerships around these principles. Copies of the ‘User’s Guide’ to the Declaration are available in this room.

The ILO is currently involved in a number of research and information dissemination activities in the area of corporate responsibility. Most important is the Business and Social Initiatives (BASI) database, the most comprehensive database of its kind of projects looking into supply-chain management and the use of international standards to improve human resource management and productivity. Of particular interest is the recent publication Corporate Success Through People: Making International Labour Standards Work For You.

The ILO is also involved in a number of technical cooperation activities at the field level. These include a project in Cambodia aiming at the improvement of working conditions in the textile and apparel sector through monitoring, legislation and increasing awareness of Cambodian labour law and ILO core labour standards. Another project in West Africa involves the ILO’s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) which is supporting a private sector initiative to help eliminate abusive child and forced labour practices in cocoa farming. More information about these and related activities can be found on www.ilo.org/business.