The International Labour Organization: Supervision and Complaints

In one line

Members report annually under article 22 on the conventions they have ratified, employers' and workers' organisations may make a representation under article 24, a member or a Conference delegate may lodge a complaint under article 26 leading to a Commission of Inquiry and ultimately the International Court of Justice, and article 33 empowers the Conference to recommend action to secure compliance.

Article 22: reporting

Each Member agrees to make an annual report to the International Labour Office on the measures which it has taken to give effect to the provisions of Conventions to which it is a party, in such form and with such particulars as the Governing Body may request.

Article 23(2) is the provision that makes this different from every other reporting system: each Member shall communicate to the representative organisations recognised for the purpose of article 3 copies of the information and reports communicated under articles 19 and 22.

So a government must give its own report to the trade unions and employers' federations of its country, who may then comment on it to the Office. A State cannot report privately about itself.

Article 23(1): the Director-General lays a summary of the information and reports before the next meeting of the Conference.

The two standing bodies

The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, twenty independent experts, examines the reports and produces observations, published, and direct requests, sent to the government. Its annual report also contains a General Survey on a subject chosen by the Governing Body, drawing on article 19 reports, which is how the position of non-ratifying States is examined.

The Conference Committee on the Application of Standards, a tripartite committee of the Conference, selects a list of individual cases from the experts' observations and examines them in public with the government present, adopting conclusions. A case may be placed in a special paragraph, which is the system's public sanction.

The two-tier design is the model. Independent experts do the legal analysis; a tripartite political body does the public examination. No United Nations treaty body has the second tier.

Article 24: representations

In the event of any representation being made to the International Labour Office by an industrial association of employers or of workers that a Member has failed to secure the effective observance within its jurisdiction of any Convention to which it is a party, the Governing Body may communicate it to the government and invite a statement.

Note who may complain. An employers' or workers' association, not an individual and not a State, and it need not be an association in the country complained of.

Article 25: if no statement is received within a reasonable time, or if the statement is not deemed satisfactory, the Governing Body shall have the right to publish the representation and the statement, if any, made in reply.