UN labour agency hears call to expand its activities in Myanmar

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi today called on the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) to expand its activities in Myanmar and help promote social justice in the Asian nation.

Ms. Suu Kyi, in a video message to the International Labour Conference of the ILO, taking place in Geneva, said the agency’s previous work in Myanmar has highlighted how social, political and economic challenges cannot be separated.

“In its attempt to eliminate forced labour and the recruitment of child soldiers, the ILO has inevitably been drawn into work related to rule of law, prisoners of conscience and freedom of association,” she said.

Ms. Suu Kyi noted that the ILO’s guiding philosophy, the so-called “decent work agenda,” is based around international labour standards, employment, social protection and social dialogue.

She added that the National League for Democracy (NLD), of which she is a leading member, wants the ILO to expand its activities in Myanmar “to help usher in an era of broad-based social justice in our country. We are particularly concerned that our workers should be enabled to form trade unions, concerned with the highest international standards as soon as possible. Labour rights are integral to the triumphant development of a nation.”