International Labor Organization (ILO)

The ILO is the UN body charged with improving global working conditions. A tripartite body comprised of governments, employers, and workers, the ILO has traditionally worked to improve conditions through setting international standards. These standards are embodied in ILO conventions and recommendations that its member states may choose to adopt, while the ILO’s supervisory bodies oversee their application. In 1998, the ILO’s General Body adopted the Fundamental Declaration on Rights at Work that declares that all members by virtue of membership in the organization are bound to respect and enforce eight conventions under four categories of rights. These categories are: a) freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining; b) the elimination of all forms of compulsory labor; c) the effective abolition of child labor; and d) the elimination of discrimination with respect to employment.

Until recently, the ILO has not focused on the enforcement or monitoring of these standards at the level of individual companies or workplaces. Now, the ILO has expanded the breadth of its approach toward the promotion of labor rights standards. To this end, it has begun to design and operate factory-level working condition improvement programs, some of which incorporate monitoring methodologies. Two such projects that incorporate monitoring methodologies are currently underway: one in Cambodia and one in Bangladesh. The Lawyers Committee advocates that the ILO continue and expand its factory level work, particularly that which incorporates monitoring strategies that are transparent and effective.

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