The 98th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the ILO will be held in Geneva from 3 to 19 June 2009. Under the third item on the agenda (information and reports on the application of Conventions and Recommendations), a General Survey on ILO standards on occupational safety and health - Promoting a safe and healthy working environment has been submitted.

This general survey concerns the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155), the Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 (No. 164), and the Protocol of 2002 to the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981. It was prepared with a view to contributing to a better understanding and fuller application of the provisions of these instruments.

The survey examines the law and practice relating to the application of Convention No. 155 and its Protocol. It is based on information received from 123 ILO member States, and it concludes, inter alia, that national law and practice in a majority of ILO member States increasingly give effect to the provisions not only of Convention No. 155, but also to the additional guidance provided in Recommendation No. 164. The study highlights the crucial importance of tracing progress in the implementation of national policies through the collection and analysis of data on their practical application and statistics on occupational accidents and diseases as provided for in the Protocol of 2002 to Convention No. 155.

The relevance and importance of Convention No. 155 have been reaffirmed through the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) and its Recommendation (No. 197), which provide further guidance on the systems approach to the management of occupational safety and health at all levels and the progressive establishment of a preventative safety and health culture.

Occupational safety and health is an area which calls for continued and sustained action to meet the challenge of ensuring the required continual improvements in a context of constant societal, technological and scientific change. Together with Convention No. 187 and Recommendation No. 197, Convention No. 155, its 2002 Protocol and Recommendation No. 164 continue to have a defining role and should be promoted, and given effect to, as a matter of priority.

Governments, employers and workers and their organizations all have a role to play in the promotion of a preventative safety and health culture and the development and enhancement of measures for social protection and healthy and safe working conditions as provided, inter alia, in the ILO Declaration of Philadelphia and confirmed in the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization.