Student ID: 091363
Module: Labour Laws
International Labor Organization (ILO)
The International Labor Organization (ILO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labor issues. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.
As stated by its Director-General, "the primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity." In working towards this goal, the organization seeks to promote employment creation, strengthen fundamental principles and rights at work—workers' rights, improve social protection, and promote social dialogue, as well as provide relevant information, training, and technical assistance. At present, the ILO's work is organized into four thematic groupings or sectors:
(1) Standards and fundamental principles and rights at work;
(2) Employment;
(3) Social Protection; and
(4) Social Dialogue.
Founded in 1919, it was formed through the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It became a member of the United Nations system after the demise of the League and the formation of the UN at the end of World War II, as the first specialized agency associated with that body. Its Constitution, as amended to date, includes the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) on the aims and purposes of the Organization. Its secretariat is known as the International Labor Office and its current Director-General is Juan Somavia (since 1999). While the organization has its critics, there are, as its Nobel Peace Prize citation said in 1969, "few organizations that have succeeded to the extent that the ILO has, in translating into action the fundamental moral idea on which it is based." "Beneath the foundation stone of the ILO's main office in Geneva lies a document," stated Aase Lionaes,