Whereas the ILO was founded in the conviction that social justice is
essential to universal and lasting peace;
Whereas economic growth is essential but not sufficient to ensure equity,
social progress and the eradication of poverty, confirming the need for the ILO
to promote strong social policies, justice and democratic institutions;
Whereas the ILO should, now more than ever, draw upon all its
standard-setting, technical cooperation and research resources in all its areas
of competence, in particular employment, vocational training and working
conditions, to ensure that, in the context of a global strategy for economic and
social development, economic and social policies are mutually reinforcing
components in order to create broad-based sustainable development;
Whereas the ILO should give special attention to the problems of persons with
special social needs, particularly the unemployed and migrant workers, and
mobilize and encourage international, regional and national efforts aimed at
resolving their problems, and promote effective policies aimed at job creation;
Whereas, in seeking to maintain the link between social progress and economic
growth, the guarantee of fundamental principles and rights at work is of
particular significance in that it enables the persons concerned to claim freely
and on the basis of equality of opportunity their fair share of the wealth which
they have helped to generate, and to achieve fully their human potential;
Whereas the ILO is the constitutionally mandated international organization
and the competent body to set and deal with international labour standards, and
enjoys universal support and acknowledgement in promoting fundamental rights at
work as the expression of its constitutional principles;
Whereas it is urgent, in a situation of growing economic interdependence, to
reaffirm the immutable nature of the fundamental principles and rights embodied
in the Constitution of the Organization and to promote their universal
application;
that in freely joining the ILO, all Members have endorsed the
principles and rights set out in its Constitution and in the Declaration
of Philadelphia, and have undertaken to work towards attaining the
overall objectives of the Organization to the best of their resources
and fully in line with their specific circumstances;
that these principles and rights have been expressed and developed in
the form of specific rights and obligations in Conventions recognized as
fundamental both inside and outside the Organization.
Declares that all Members, even if they have not ratified the Conventions
in question, have an obligation arising from the very fact of membership in
the Organization, to respect, to promote and to realize, in good faith and
in accordance with the Constitution, the principles concerning the
fundamental rights which are the subject of those Conventions, namely:
freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to
collective bargaining;
the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
the effective abolition of child labour; and
the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and
occupation.
Recognizes the obligation on the Organization to assist its Members, in
response to their established and expressed needs, in order to attain these
objectives by making full use of its constitutional, operational and
budgetary resources, including by the mobilization of external resources and
support, as well as by encouraging other international organizations with
which the ILO has established relations, pursuant to article 12 of its
Constitution, to support these efforts:
by offering technical cooperation and advisory services to promote the
ratification and implementation of the fundamental Conventions;
by assisting those Members not yet in a position to ratify some or all
of these Conventions in their efforts to respect, to promote and to
realize the principles concerning fundamental rights which are the
subject of those Conventions; and
by helping the Members in their efforts to create a climate for
economic and social development.
Decides that, to give full effect to this Declaration, a promotional
follow-up, which is meaningful and effective, shall be implemented in
accordance with the measures specified in the annex hereto, which shall be
considered as an integral part of this Declaration.
Stresses that labour standards should not be used for protectionist trade
purposes, and that nothing in this Declaration and its follow-up shall be
invoked or otherwise used for such purposes; in addition, the comparative
advantage of any country should in no way be called into question by this
Declaration and its follow-up.
The aim of the follow-up described below is to encourage the efforts made
by the Members of the Organization to promote the fundamental principles and
rights enshrined in the Constitution of the ILO and the Declaration of
Philadelphia and reaffirmed in this Declaration.
In line with this objective, which is of a strictly promotional nature,
this follow-up will allow the identification of areas in which the
assistance of the Organization through its technical cooperation activities
may prove useful to its Members to help them implement these fundamental
principles and rights. It is not a substitute for the established
supervisory mechanisms, nor shall it impede their functioning; consequently,
specific situations within the purview of those mechanisms shall not be
examined or re-examined within the framework of this follow-up.
The two aspects of this follow-up, described below, are based on existing
procedures: the annual follow-up concerning non-ratified fundamental
Conventions will entail merely some adaptation of the present modalities of
application of article 19, paragraph 5(e) of the Constitution; and the
global report will serve to obtain the best results from the procedures
carried out pursuant to the Constitution.
II. Annual follow-up concerning non-ratified fundamental Conventions
The purpose is to provide an opportunity to review each year, by means of
simplified procedures to replace the four-year review introduced by the
Governing Body in 1995, the efforts made in accordance with the Declaration
by Members which have not yet ratified all the fundamental Conventions.
The follow-up will cover each year the four areas of fundamental
principles and rights specified in the Declaration.
The follow-up will be based on reports requested from Members under
article 19, paragraph 5(e) of the Constitution. The report forms will be
drawn up so as to obtain information from governments which have not
ratified one or more of the fundamental Conventions, on any changes which
may have taken place in their law and practice, taking due account of
article 23 of the Constitution and established practice.
These reports, as compiled by the Office, will be reviewed by the
Governing Body.
With a view to presenting an introduction to the reports thus compiled,
drawing attention to any aspects which might call for a more in-depth
discussion, the Office may call upon a group of experts appointed for this
purpose by the Governing Body.
Adjustments to the Governing Body's existing procedures should be examined
to allow Members which are not represented on the Governing Body to provide,
in the most appropriate way, clarifications which might prove necessary or
useful during Governing Body discussions to supplement the information
contained in their reports.
The purpose of this report is to provide a dynamic global picture relating
to each category of fundamental principles and rights noted during the
preceding four-year period, and to serve as a basis for assessing the
effectiveness of the assistance provided by the Organization, and for
determining priorities for the following period, in the form of action plans
for technical cooperation designed in particular to mobilize the internal
and external resources necessary to carry them out.
The report will cover, each year, one of the four categories of
fundamental principles and rights in turn.
The report will be drawn up under the responsibility of the
Director-General on the basis of official information, or information
gathered and assessed in accordance with established procedures. In the case
of States which have not ratified the fundamental Conventions, it will be
based in particular on the findings of the aforementioned annual follow-up.
In the case of Members which have ratified the Conventions concerned, the
report will be based in particular on reports as dealt with pursuant to
article 22 of the Constitution.
This report will be submitted to the Conference for tripartite discussion
as a report of the Director-General. The Conference may deal with this
report separately from reports under article 12 of its Standing Orders, and
may discuss it during a sitting devoted entirely to this report, or in any
other appropriate way. It will then be for the Governing Body, at an early
session, to draw conclusions from this discussion concerning the priorities
and plans of action for technical cooperation to be implemented for the
following four-year period.
Proposals shall be made for amendments to the Standing Orders of the
Governing Body and the Conference which are required to implement the
preceding provisions.
The Conference shall, in due course, review the operation of this
follow-up in the light of the experience acquired to assess whether it has
adequately fulfilled the overall purpose articulated in Part I.
The foregoing is the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work and its Follow-up duly adopted
by the General Conference of the International Labour Organization during its
Eighty-sixth Session which was held at Geneva and declared closed the 18
June 1998.
IN FAITH WHEREOF we have appended our signatures this nineteenth day of June
1998.
The President of the Conference,
The Director-General of the International Labour Office.
The text of the Declaration also exists in Arabic, Bahasa, Chinese, French,
German, Polish, Russian and Spanish.
