ILO LIAISON OFFICE – BRUSSELS
NEWSLETTER NO. 6/2004
ILO carries the Olympic Flame
Four ILO representatives were among the 123 relay runners who carried the Olympic Flame through Belgium on 21 June
as it made its way towards Athens for the opening of the Olympic Games. The event took place in Antwerp, home of the
1920 Olympic Games. The ILO
was invited to take part in this event thanks to its long-standing links with the International Olympic Committee
(IOC). In 1924 the ILO's first director-general, Albert Thomas, and the IOC's first president, Pierre de Coubertin,
initiated their organisation’s practical collaboration in order to promote workers' "right to leisure" within the
ILO's tripartite framework. More recently, cooperation between the two institutions has focused on joint efforts
and initiatives to ensure compliance with core labour standards in the production of sporting goods sold for the
Olympic Games. These activities are carried out with the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, the trade
unions and NGOs.
ILO's annual Conference comes to an end
The 92nd annual Conference of the ILO completed its work on 17 June 2004 after wide-ranging debates on the social
dimension of globalisation, which focused in particular on the general plan for future ILO action on globalisation.
Another action plan was adopted by the Conference in order to ensure a fair status for migrant workers around the
world (see below). The Conference also developed new labour standards for the improvement of working and safety
conditions for the 35 million workers in the fisheries sector. In addition, it adopted a new recommendation on
developing human resources, focusing in particular on education, training and lifelong learning. This recommendation
deals with certain contemporary challenges, such as the 'brain drain', which are a matter of great concern for
developing countries.
The Conference adopted a resolution on gender issues, equal pay and maternity protection. It reviewed compliance
with workers' and employers' fundamental rights during a discussion on the ILO's Global Report, which this year
focuses on the issue of freedom of association and core labour standards (see our May Newsletter). The debates
also covered the situation of Palestinian workers in the occupied Arab territories, forced labour in Myanmar and
rights at work in other countries.
Click here for a press release summarising
the work done by the Conference.
New action plan for migrant workers
This year’s International Labour Conference adopted a new action plan designed to enforce a fair status for some
86 million migrant workers in the globalised economy. The purpose of this plan is to allow migrants to be covered
by the guarantees set out in international labour standards, while at the same time benefiting from relevant
national labour and social legislation. It also calls for the development of a non-binding multilateral framework
which will include international guidelines on such aspects as promoting the management of migration flows for
employment purposes; approving and supervising recruitment agencies drawing up contracts for migrant workers;
preventing abuses of and the illegal trafficking of migrants/human trafficking, etc.
A press release containing more details on this new plan can be read
here. The ILO will devote several expert
meetings to this issue and will ask the Member States to share best practices so that they can be incorporated
into the guidelines.
Looking for holiday ideas?
Piranha fishing with the indigenous Huaroni community in Ecuador, exploring the coral reef and mountainous
landscapes of the Colombian islands, hiking through the heart of the tropical rainforest in Guatemala, and more...
Those are just a few of the holiday excursions offered by Redturs (sustainable tourism network), an ILO-run project
which aims to support indigenous and rural communities while creating decent jobs and developing an economy that
is more respectful of cultural heritage and natural resources. On the Redturs website (
www.redturs.org), more than 100 small communities located
in six Latin American countries present their natural and cultural attractions, and tell tourists how to find them.
The objective of Redturs is to reinforce communities' ability to benefit from tourism by ensuring fair distribution
of the profits generated by tourism. This network offers these communities unique opportunities for creating decent
jobs, since they are often located in isolated areas where the opportunities for economic development are few and
far between. Protecting the heritage is just as essential: despite the economic benefits they could obtain, the
representatives of the six countries are prepared to suspend any project which "entails a burden on our people,
our culture and the environment".
To find out more about holiday opportunities with Redturs, do not hesitate to visit its
website or read the ILO article about it
here.
Smoking at the workplace: non-smokers win ground
The incidence of smoking at the workplace – one of the most serious threats to workers' health and safety –
is slowly falling. On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day (31 May 2004), the ILO published a new study
entitled Workplace Smoking, reviewing all of the activities carried out at workplace environments to fight
nicotine addiction. It cites cases of companies offering their employees bonuses if they stop smoking or making
certain non-smoking members of staff responsible for enforcing no smoking rules. For their part, the trade unions
are stepping up the number of initiatives to protect their members from passive smoking, especially in hotels and
restaurants.
The study reviews the situation in the various countries, in particular in the ever increasing number of countries
where smoking at the workplace has been banned. Drawing on situations observed around the world, it recommends six
measures for eradicating nicotine addiction at the workplace. It is available
here free of charge,
and an article on it published by the ILO is available
here.
New publications
The following recent ILO publications may be of particular interest to our readers:
- Young soldiers. Why they choose to fight
by Rachel Brett and Irma Specht - 2004, xvi+192 p., ISBN 92-2-113718-X, €20
They are part of rebel factions, national armies, paramilitaries or other armed groups. They are involved in the
most violent of conflicts in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), Colombia, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka and a multitude of other countries. This is a book on the reasons why adolescents,
who are neither abducted nor physically forced, decide to join armed groups and as a result are classified as
volunteers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the soldiers themselves, the authors challenge conventional
wisdom to offer a thought-provoking account of the role that war, poverty, education, politics, identity, family,
and friends all play in compelling these young men and women to join military life. They also address the important
issues of demobilisation and the reintegration process. Click
here to order this book.
- ILO Migration Survey 2003: Country summaries
2004, 435 p., ISBN 92-2-015749-7, €30
This book offers country-by-country summaries of the 93 replies to the migration survey received by the ILO up
to April 2004. The survey shows the positions of various member countries, stressing the need to have access to
comparative information on the experience of other countries in such areas as migration policy, legislation and
national practices, migratory flows and the employment of nationals abroad – all for the purposes of devising and
administering policies on the migration of labour. Several European countries, including Belgium, took part in the
survey. You can order the book
here.
Programme of meetings
Click here for a list of meetings scheduled
by the ILO in 2004.