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U.N. Labor Organization Issues Blueprint for Fair Globalization |
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The International Labor Organization (ILO) recently adopted a major “Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization,” which calls for a worldwide comitment to build a global economy based on social justice.
Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), says, “This declaration speaks of the need to make a different reality possible.”
In place of our world of income inequality, high levels of unemployment and poverty and the growth of unprotected work, the adoption of this declaration demonstrates a common commitment to build a world based on social justice.
The declaration, which was two years in the making, reaffirms the commitment of ILO member countries to make full, productive employment and decent work the center of their economic and social policies. The ILO is the U.N. agency that brings together governments, employers and workers to promote decent work throughout the world.
The declaration also reiterates the need to include all four pillars of decent work in social and economic policies—promoting employment, developing and enhancing social protection, promoting social dialogue and tripartism and realizing the fundamental principles of workers’ rights.
To help ILO members achieve the goal of decent work, the declaration directs the organization to strengthen its ability to provide members with such services as technical cooperation and advice and help creating partnerships with private groups and businesses. It also calls on the ILO to invite other international and regional organizations to promote decent work and to evaluate the employment effects of their trade and financial market policies.
According to the ITUC, the ILO should play a strong role in reviewing the policies of institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization.
The declaration’s calls for concrete action to achieve decent work follows an international Call to Action last October for governments and global leaders to keep their promises to create decent work for all. The promises were part of a July 2006 United Nations ministerial statement.
ILO Director-General Juan Somavia says:
The demands of the modern world of work are changing, and this declaration strengthens our effort to respond through the decent work agenda. Not only does it signal a major change towards balanced economic and social policies, but it equips the ILO with a formidable tool to pursue the promotion of a fair globalization based on decent work.
Says South African trade unionist Ebrahim Patel, who led the workers’ side in the negotiations:
This is an excellent declaration. It is a statement about the present and about the future, about helping to create a world in which social justice is at the heart of the global economy and in which decent work is the tool to get it there.
The full text of the “Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization” is available here.
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