International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a specialist agency of the United Nations (UN), whose mandate is the protection of working people and the promotion of their human and labor rights. The ILO [Page 476]was set up in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles to facilitate international agreement on labor protection through the adoption of conventions and recommendations by its member states. It was the only major international organization to survive the demise of the League of Nations, and in 1946, the ILO became the first specialist agency of the UN. In 1969, the ILO was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to peace through the pursuit of social justice.

The ILO is made up of three principal institutions. The International Labour Office—the permanent secretariat headquartered in Geneva—comprises some 1,900 personnel from 110 different nationalities and headed by a director general; the International Institute of Labour Studies, the research arm of the ILO, also based in Geneva, whose mandate is to promote research, public debate, and knowledge sharing on emerging issues of concern to the ILO and its constituents; the International Training Centre—a large residential training center in Turin that provides training and learning in areas that further the ILO's mandate and support its member states in their pursuit of economic and social development. The administration and management of the ILO is decentralized to regional, area, and branch offices in more than forty countries.

The ILO has a tripartite structure of governance and decision making that remains unique within the UN. Each year its member states are invited to send two government, one employer, and one labor representative to the annual International Labour Conference. Each has the right to speak and vote independently. The governing body is similarly structured, comprising twenty-eight government members, fourteen employer, and fourteen worker members. Ten of the government seats are permanently held by states of chief industrial importance (Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The other government members are elected by the conference every three years. Working within and around this structure are various tripartite and expert committees that focus on particular industries or key issues such as the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), which manages more than 1,000 ILO-sponsored initiatives worldwide to promote alternatives to child labor.

This tripartite activity is extended to include the promotion of national level “social dialogue” between labor and employer organizations covering a broad spectrum of social and economic issues and supported through an extensive network of technical cooperation. Originally set up in the early 1950s to support developing nations, technical cooperation programs now account for more than half of the ILO budget and cover activities from training entrepreneurs in small business administration to assisting governments in revising labor legislation in some 140 countries and territories at various stages of development. The emphasis on linking international agreements with national activity reflects the long-held ILO strategy of demonstrable relevance. This seeks to ensure that in pursuit of its mandate, the ILO has a visible and active presence within those member states in most need of its support and expertise. Increasingly, ILO technical cooperation is run in conjunction with poverty-reduction programs operated by the UN, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, underlining ILO commitment to ensuring that social protection issues form part of an integrated framework of economic and financial aid.

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