UN labour agency opens session with fairer globalization high on agenda

Efforts to ensure fairer rules for international trade in the era of globalization and a bid to end forced labour in Myanmar figure high on the agenda of a two-week session of the Governing Body of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) beginning in Geneva today.

The session brings together worker, employer and government representatives for discussions which will centre on the findings and conclusions of the recently published report, "A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All," presented to the ILO by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization.

The report by the independent commission established by the ILO to examine the social impact of globalization calls for an "urgent rethink" of current policies and institutions involved in the governance of globalization, outlining a vision for making it fair for all.

It proposes a series of coordinated measures to improve governance and accountability, including fairer rules for international trade, investment, finance and migration. In addition, it calls for policies to make decent work a global goal, measures to promote core labour standards, and a minimum level of social protection in the global economy. The study also recommends new efforts to mobilize international resources to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of time-specific targets for tackling the world's ills, including halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

On Myanmar, the Governing Body will examine the feasibility of implementing a joint plan of action between the ILO and the Government.

That scheme, which foresees the naming of a facilitator whom potential victims of forced labour can approach confidentially, was suspended after confrontations at the end of May led to the detention of opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

On the broader jobs picture, the session will also discuss ways to create productive employment in order to reduce poverty and accelerate development. The ILO estimates that 185.9 million people - or 6.2 per cent of the world labour force - were out of work in 2003.