Employers' Handbook on ILO Standards-related Activities

APPENDIX 6
has held four meetings at the 264th Session (November 1995), 265th Session (March 1996), 267th Session
(November 1996) and 268th Session (March 1997) of the Governing Body.
23 ILO: Report of the Director-General, Programme and structure of the ILO, International Labour
Conference, 48th Session, Geneva, 1964, pp. 156-157.
24 ibid., p. 15.
25 ILO, ibid., p. 117.
26 Report of the Director-General, 1984, op. cit., p. 16.
27 This is the meaning a contrario of a speech given by Albert Thomas to the Third Session of the
International Labour Conference, 1921, Record of Proceedings, Vol. 1, p. 219.
28 See, for example, Conventions Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 6.
29 ILO: Record of Proceedings, 15th Session of the International Labour Conference, Geneva, 1931,
Vol. II, pp. 3-5.
30 This procedure creates an institutional link between the Conference, the body entrusted with standard
setting, and national parliaments, upon which the binding effect of these instruments in the countries
concerned is contingent. The aim of bringing the instrument before the competent authorities is obviously to
allow parliaments to pronounce, in full knowledge of the facts, on the follow-up to be given to the instruments
adopted by the ILO and to reach a decision, whatever the nature of this decision. Supervision of the
obligation to submit instruments to the competent authorities has, over the years, become merely a formal
exercise with very few exceptions. This constitutional obligation should assume once again the character
that it had at the beginning: to encourage member States to ratify or implement the instruments they have
adopted; to provide assistance to parliaments; to provide for a wider distribution of statements or proposals
accompanying the submission, etc. This mechanism does not work for the early Conventions. This is one of
the reasons why, following the Social Summit in Copenhagen, I asked those member States who had not
done so to communicate their intentions to ratify the seven core Conventions. I do not, however, believe that
this solution should extend to other instruments. It must remain exceptional and be reserved for core Conventions;
if not it will cease to be effective.
31 ILO: Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 27th Session, Paris, 1945, p.
155.
32 loc. cit.
33 It is for this reason that the Conference Delegation on Constitutional Questions tried in 1946 (without
much success) to counter the undue competitive advantage enjoyed by federal countries.
34 See GB.267/LILS/WP/PRS/1 as well as draft article 45bis to be included in the Standing Orders of
the Conference, which the Conference is called upon to examine this year in the context of the proposed
constitutional amendment.
35 ILO: Constitutional Questions, Part I: Reports of the Delegation on Constitutional Questions,
29th Session of the International Labour Conference, Montreal, 1946, paras. 43 and 58.
36 This mechanism, which has no equivalent in other international organizations, informed decisionmakers
of the follow-up to be given to the instruments to be adopted by the Conference. It is possible that,
over time or with the prospect of a change in the functions of parliaments which are the “natural” competent
authorities, the obligation to bring the matter before the authorities was considered a formal obligation.
However, paragraphs 5(c) and 6(c) of article 19 provide that the Office should be informed of measures
taken. It would be timely to examine means of breathing new life into this obligation on the lines of the
memorandum adopted by the Governing Body, so that it might once again be fully meaningful.
37 ILO: Constitutional Questions, op. cit., para. 74.
38 Report of the Director-General, 1964, op. cit., p. 169.
39 ibid., p. 170.
40 Report of the Director-General, 1984, op. cit., p. 20.
41 ILO: Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations,
International Labour Conference, 33rd Session, Geneva, 1950, Report III (Part IV), pp. 2 and 3; and idem,
53rd Session, 1969, Report III (Part IV), p. 186.
42 Report of the Director-General, 1964, op. cit., p. 157.
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