A legal perspective on the role of international labour standards in rebalancing globalization

International Labour Standards (ILS) have always played a key role in ensuring that economic and social progress go hand in hand. Beyond recent policy statements which have reaffirmed this role, are ILO member States translating the commitments they voluntarily adopted under ratified Conventions into concrete actions? Is the ILO sufficiently responsive to its Members’ needs, assisting them in taking measures that are commensurate with the on-going challenges? The present paper outlines certain elements of a response to these questions in relation to three topical matters: the role of ILS in the context of the economic crisis identified through the comments of the ILO supervisory bodies: the current trends in increasing the outreach of ILS to workers in the informal economy; the impact of labour provisions inserted in preferential trade arrangements on the ILO standards system. Finally, the paper sketches out possible policy implications for ILO standard-setting action.