The Global Compact, ILO and Russian Business Community against Forced Labour.
On 14 May 2003 leading representatives of the Russian business community together with the representatives of UN agencies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior attended a breakfast meeting organized by the ILO on the important issue of Forced Labour.
14 May 2003
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In her opening remark, Ms Barrett-Reid, Director of the ILO Subregional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia said: “leading business men and women in the Russian Federation have an important leadership role in combating forced and compulsory labour and in raising awareness of their colleagues on this issue. Many Russian companies have introduced important initiatives, it is our role, as United Nations Organizations, to work with them to promote and disseminate these good practices.”
Mr. R.Plant and Ms. T. Mangahas of the ILO’s new Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour and Mr. A.Yafaev, Forced Labor expert in the ILO’s International Labour Standards Department addressed the participants and told about the ILO response to the problem. The short presentation was followed by a discussion.
The breakfast this morning was the third of four breakfasts that are to be organized each around one of the 4 ILO principles of the Global Compact*. The first breakfast was devoted to the issue of child labour, the second one - on the non-discrimination principle and the fourth will be organized around the issue of collective bargaining.
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* The Global Compact was officially launched in the Russian Federation during a high-level roundtable meeting organized co-jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the UN agencies in November 2001. For the first time a Steering Committee on the Global Compact initiative in the Russian Federation was convened on April 11, 2002. This event showed the interest from the Russian entrepreneurs in participating in this endeavor undertaken by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in order to closely associate the worldwide business community with the promotion of fundamental rights.
Four of the nine principles promoted in the Global Compact are the ILO principles, reaffirmed in the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at work:
· Freedom of association and collective bargaining
· Elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour
· Effective abolition of child labour
· Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation
Mr. R.Plant and Ms. T. Mangahas of the ILO’s new Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour and Mr. A.Yafaev, Forced Labor expert in the ILO’s International Labour Standards Department addressed the participants and told about the ILO response to the problem. The short presentation was followed by a discussion.
The breakfast this morning was the third of four breakfasts that are to be organized each around one of the 4 ILO principles of the Global Compact*. The first breakfast was devoted to the issue of child labour, the second one - on the non-discrimination principle and the fourth will be organized around the issue of collective bargaining.
**********************************************************
* The Global Compact was officially launched in the Russian Federation during a high-level roundtable meeting organized co-jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the UN agencies in November 2001. For the first time a Steering Committee on the Global Compact initiative in the Russian Federation was convened on April 11, 2002. This event showed the interest from the Russian entrepreneurs in participating in this endeavor undertaken by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in order to closely associate the worldwide business community with the promotion of fundamental rights.
Four of the nine principles promoted in the Global Compact are the ILO principles, reaffirmed in the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at work:
· Freedom of association and collective bargaining
· Elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour
· Effective abolition of child labour
· Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation