Slavery in The 21st Century

International Monitoring Mechanisms 49
it established the Working Group on Slavery, which later became the Working Group on Contemporary
Forms of Slavery under the aegis of the Sub-Commission, to review developments in the
field of slavery based on all available information.
B. ILO Mechanisms
164. The ILO has since its inception sought to establish a monitoring method that is acceptable
to all States parties. The ILO process is widely regarded as one of the most effective systems of
supervision, and many of the existing reporting procedures under other human rights treaties “owe
much to the long experience of reporting under various conventions adopted by the ILO”. 270 The
principal ILO system for the application of international labour standards is based on reports
received from Governments and is exercised by the Committee of Experts on the Application of
Conventions and Recommendations. Article 22 of the ILO Constitution requires all States to report
periodically on the conventions to which they are a party.
165. This mechanism starts with the submission of reports by Governments. Originally, reports
were to be submitted every year on all ratified conventions. That system has since been revised
on a number of occasions in view of the increasing number of conventions and members of the
ILO. Priority is now given, in terms of periodicity of reporting, to the more important conventions
such as those dealing with fundamental human rights, on which detailed reports must be submitted
every second year; reports on other conventions must be submitted every five years. The ILO
Governing Body decided that reports were no longer necessary for certain conventions which they
determined had lost their relevance over time.
166. The reports are carefully reviewed by the staff of the ILO, who prepare draft comments for
the Committee of Experts, a body of distinguished individuals from different countries which meets
once each year. The reports and the draft comments are then examined by the Committee of
Experts, which makes juridical assessments in closed session. Although the Committee uses the
reports submitted by Governments as a starting point, it also looks at other available official or reliable
data, such as information gathered in the course of ILO direct contact missions, reports of
United Nations bodies and other international agencies, as well as submissions from employers’
and workers’ organizations. These additional sources of information can be important in establishing
whether the conventions are implemented in practice.
167. The Committee of Experts reports annually to the Conference Committee on the Application
of Conventions and Recommendations, a tripartite committee of the International Labour
Conference. 271 The Conference Committee meets at the annual International Labour Conference
to discuss in open session some of the more pressing cases referred to it by the Committee of
Experts. The Conference Committee issues a report, adopted by the Conference in plenary session,
which is transmitted to the Governments concerned, making specific reference to points that
should be addressed in the next report. Although the views of the Committee of Experts are not
binding on States parties, they do carry a certain amount of authority and in most instances are
accepted. They are a useful source of information on the meaning and application of obligations
in the ILO conventions. 272
270 Martin Scheinin, “International Mechanisms and Procedures for Implementation”, in An Introduction to the
International Protection of Human Rights, Raija Hanski and Markku Suksi (eds.), 1997, p. 56; see also E. A. Landy, The
Effectiveness of International Supervision: Thirty Years of ILO Experience, 1966.
271 Both Committees derive their authority from decisions of the International Labour Conference and the ILO
Governing Body. See N. Valticos and G. von Potobsky, International Labour Law, 1994, pp. 239-45.
272
There is a mechanism under article 37 of the ILO Constitution which provides that any dispute relating to the
interpretation of a provision of a convention can be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Although the ICJ
is the only forum that has jurisdiction to give definitive interpretations, this procedure has been used on only one occasion,
in 1932.