UN labour agency hails report calling for fairer globalization

The United Nations labour agency has welcomed a new "ground-breaking," report that calls for an "urgent rethink" of globalization to ensure that benefits are to be more fairly distributed.

During a two-week session in Geneva that ended yesterday, employer, worker and government representatives at the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) hailed the report, A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All, as a balanced and coherent analysis of the social impact of globalization.

The study, presented to the ILO by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, calls for increased development assistance and 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.

“We deliberately brought together a non-like-minded group of eminent people and their report shows that dialogue can be a creative force for urgently needed change," ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said of the Commission co-chaired by President Tarja Halonen of Finland and President Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania.

Presenting the report to the ILO’s Working Party on the Social Dimension of Globalization, Mr. Mkapa declared: “The potential of globalization for good or bad is immense. It is a force with many positive aspects that can be harnessed for humanity's collective well-being, but some of its elements have to be tamed for the sake of our common civility and existence.”

All speakers endorsed the recommendation that decent work be a global goal. The Employers' spokesperson highlighted the elements recognizing that globalization’s benefits depend on respect for universally shared values and principles within market economies and democracy. The Workers' spokesperson noted that practically all participants endorsed the Commission's strong emphasis on the importance of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work to the building of a fair globalization.

Proposals for increasing development aid received widespread support and many speakers underscored the significance of debt relief and increased aid to overcome inequality both within and among countries.

The Governing Body, which meets three times a year to set ILO policy, is comprised of representatives of governments, employers and workers.