Press releases

ACTRAV Info sheets are communiqués on positions taken by the International Labour Office affecting workers and on the positions of the Workers' Group within the organization's various forums.

2005

  1. Many workers suffer from hunger and poverty - FAO/ILO/IUF report

    06 October 2005

    Many of the 450 million agricultural workers live in dire conditions

  2. 28 April 10th International Commemoration Day (ICD) For Dead And Injured Workers World Day for Safety and Health at Work

    22 March 2005

    Employing half of the world's labour force,modernday agriculture is anything but idyllic.Along with mining and construction,it is one of the three most hazardous sectors in industrialized and developing countries alike. Of an estimated 355,000 fatal work accidents per year worldwide, more than half are in agriculture.A disproportionate share of work-related injuries and diseases is also borne by agricultural workers. And child labourers, all too commonly employed in this sector,face particular dangers.

  3. Global labour leaders call for release of Nepalese trade unionists

    22 March 2005

    A group of top trade union leaders who are taking part in a session of the Governing Body of the tripartite UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) went today to the Nepalese mission to the UN in Geneva to express their concern about the situation in Nepal and call for the release of detained trade unionists.

2004

  1. Advancing fair Globalization

    09 October 2004

    Heidemarie Wieczoreck Zeul, the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development and Sir Leroy Trotman, the spokesperson of the Workers Group of the ILO welcomed an international group of students,trade unions and academics to the inauguration of the Masters Course on "Labour Policies and Globalisation" earlier this week in Kassel, Germany

  2. India: Hope Dawns as Women Beat Poverty

    01 July 2004

    In the villages of India, women are organizing against poverty. With the backing of a team from the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV)hundreds of "self-help groups" have been set up. These groups now ensure a trade union presence in some of the most remote areas of southern India.

2003

  1. Global unions, Amnesty international: "No to impunity for the murderers of trade unionists in Colombia"

    10 December 2003

    Colombia holds the grim record for the highest level of violence against labour leaders with 184 trade unionists killed in 2002 and 64 during 2003. Yet, according to testimonies by Global Unions and Amnesty International representatives, most of these murders have gone unpunished. The trade union and human rights campaigners were addressing a public meeting in Geneva on the occasion of Human Rights Day, 10 December ahead of a meeting with Colombia's acting ambassador in Switzerland.

  2. December 10: Trade Union Rights are Human Rights

    09 December 2003

    Trade union organisations worldwide are using this year's Human Rights Day to remind the international community that workers' rights are human rights, but that these rights are still denied to millions of workers. Abuses range from restrictive legislation to the brutal repression and even murder of union activists.

  3. ILO Acts Against Violations of Workers' Rights in Belarus

    19 November 2003

    The worker members of the Governing Body of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) have welcomed the decision (today 19 November 2003) to

  4. World Food Day 16 October 2003: The ILO and decent work in agriculture

    16 October 2003

    Today,the number of people working in agriculture is put at more than 1.3 billion. They make up half of the world's active population.They feed the world, but what is their fate Unenviable,according to a whole series of first-hand accounts at the symposium on decent work in agriculture, held recently under the auspices of the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

  5. Workers call on the ILO to provide urgent rehabilitation support to Iraq

    09 June 2003

    Workers'delegates attending this year's International Labour Conference in Geneva have called on the UN's International Labour Organization(ILO) urgently to send a needs assessment mission to Iraq to determine what forms of technical support and assistance the ILO can properly provide in the rehabilitation and reconstruction programme.