International Labour Organization

The International Labour Organization (ILO) was created in 1919. Since 1946 the ILO is a specialized agency of the UN. The Organization aims at promoting social and economic progress and improving labour conditions.

The main functions of the ILO are the following:

— creation of coordinated policies and programs directed at solving social and labour issues;

— adoption of international labour standards in the form of conventions and recommendations and control over their implementation;

— assistance to member-states in solving social and labour problems;

— human rights protection (the right to work, freedom of association, collective negotiations, protection against forced labour, protection against discrimination, etc.);

— research and publication of works on social and labour issues.

The basis of the ILO is the tripartite principle, i.e. the negotiations within the Organization are held between the representatives of governments, trade unions, and member-states’ employers.

190 conventions and more than 200 recommendations on social and labour issues have been adopted since 1919.

The International Labour Conference (ILC) is the ILO superior body convened at least once a year. The Conference deals with examining and adopting the international norms in the social and labour sphere, and with discussing universally important questions.

The Governing Body is the ILO executive body which directs the Organization’s activities in the period between the ILC sessions and defines the order of the Conference decisions’ implementation. The Governing Body meets three times a year.

The Republic of Belarus has been an ILO member-state since 1954. Belarus ratified 51 ILO conventions, including 9 fundamental conventions.

Membership in the ILO allows Belarus to study and apply the international practice of settlement of social and labor issues, to develop social partnership (government – trade unions – employers), to improve and regulate the labor market. Participation in the work of ILO helps to develop labor laws based on global experience, to promote entrepreneurship, to solve the problems of employment.

Belarus' technical cooperation with the ILO is currently suspended.

The main body cooperating with the ILO is the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Belarus.