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NINTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Other questions

UNESCO draft Recommendation concerning the Status
of Higher Education Teaching Personnel

1. At its 265th Session (March 1996), the Governing Body invited the Director-General to ensure ILO participation in the UNESCO meeting of experts convened to further consider the draft Recommendation on the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel, and to present its viewpoints on the text and any proposed modifications. It also invited the Director-General to reiterate the position of the ILO that responsibility for monitoring the Recommendation's application, if adopted, should be conferred on the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, subject to the approval of an extension of its mandate by the competent bodies of the ILO and of UNESCO. The Governing Body decided that the Committee on Legal Issues and International Standards should receive a report on the outcome of these further consultations at the 267th Session of the Governing Body (November 1996).⁽¹⁾

2. By a letter dated 4 June 1996, the Director-General of UNESCO, on behalf of its Executive Board, invited the ILO to be represented at the meeting of experts to consider the draft Recommendation. In his reply of 6 August 1996 the Director-General of the ILO informed the Director-General of UNESCO of the position adopted by the Governing Body of the ILO concerning the monitoring of the instrument's application by the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers.

3. The government experts met in Paris on 8 and 9 October 1996 and adopted a draft Recommendation that will be submitted to UNESCO member States with a view to its examination at the 29th Session (November 1997) of UNESCO's General Conference. ILO representatives participated fully in the plenary sittings and in the work of the Drafting Committee set up by the meeting of experts to prepare a report taking account of the observations submitted by 20 member States, seven non-governmental organizations and one intergovernmental organization. Cooperation with the UNESCO secretariat was excellent, and the proposals made by the ILO representatives were in general received favourably by the government experts.

4. The revised draft will be available shortly after a final examination by the two secretariats. It will be communicated to the Committee on Legal Issues and International Labour Standards at the Governing Body's 268th Session (March 1997). It will then be for the Committee to take a decision on the outcome and on the effect to be given to the consultations with UNESCO on the Recommendation on the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel.

Geneva, 22 October 1996.

¹ GB.265/8/2, para. 95.