What’s on the agenda at this year’s International Labour Conference?

Dimitrina Dimitrova

Dimitrina Dimitrova
is the Deputy Director of the ILO’s Official Meetings Department

The 106th Session of the International Labour Conference gets under way in Geneva, Switzerland from June 5-16. Here’s a look at the main issues that will be discussed by government, employer and worker delegates from the ILO’s 187 member states.

Green jobs in the spotlight

The transformational goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development require that the world achieve an inclusive green economy. The 2016 Paris Agreement on Climate Change is a critical step in that direction. As such, the issues of work and climate change will take centre stage in the Director General’s annual report to the conference. The report will be discussed by delegates during the plenary sessions.

Labour migration and the challenge of governance

According to ILO global estimates, migrant workers account for 150 million of the world’s approximately 232 million international migrant. A general discussion on labour migration will offer an opportunity to explore the relationship between migration, jobs and development and the governance challenges surrounding this issue.

Fundamental principles and rights at work

The landmark ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization  is a powerful reaffirmation of ILO values and the ILO’s key role in helping to achieve progress and social justice in the context of globalization. Inspired by the Declaration, this discussion will focus on how the realization of the fundamental principles and rights at work can further the attainment of the other strategic objectives of the Decent Work Agenda: employment, social protection, and social dialogue through integrated policy approach.

Occupational safety and health in construction, mining and agriculture

More than 160 million people suffer from occupational and work-related diseases, and there are 313 million non-fatal accidents per year. This discussion will build on an ILO tradition that has generated more than 40 global standards.

Peace and stability through a possible revision of the Employment (Transition from War to Peace) Recommendation, 1944 (No. 71) 

This standard-setting process upholds the ILO’s constitutional principles of social justice and peace, principles that are deeply rooted in the reconstruction and peace-building efforts made following the First and Second World Wars. This session will continue a revision process begun at the 2016 ILC with a view to the adoption of a Recommendation in response to the growing international concern with the importance of employment and decent work in fragile and crisis-affected countries.

A World of Work Summit on women in the world of work will take place on 15 June. 

Women are disproportionately affected by unequal power relations, low pay, non-standard forms of employment and other issues that expose them to discrimination in the world of work. This special sitting will build on a new World Employment and Social Outlook report focusing on women in the world of work, which will come out on June 14th.
Details on the ILO Conference programme are available here.

The tip of the iceberg

As anyone who’s been to the ILC will tell you, it’s impossible to sum up in a list of six points. But you can still get a sense for what it’s like to be there by joining us on social media. The following hashtags will be used during the conference:

We will also offer regular email updates and summaries with the latest news. If you’d like to receive them, please sign up here.

Finally, look out for live Facebook interviews with ILO experts and special guests, which we’ll be hosting daily for the full duration of the conference.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s