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NINTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Other questions

International Labour Conference:
Report III (Parts 1, 2 and 3) -- Summaries of reports
(articles 19, 22 and 35 of the Constitution)

Summaries of reports on ratified Conventions
(articles 22 and 35 of the Constitution)

1. Article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization provides that "each of the Members 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. These reports shall be made in such form and shall contain such particulars as the Governing Body may request." Article 23 of the Constitution provides that the Director-General shall lay before the next meeting of the Conference a summary of the reports communicated to him by Members in pursuance of article 22, and that each Member shall communicate copies of these reports to the representative organizations of employers and workers.

2. At its 204th Session (November 1977),⁽¹⁾ the Governing Body approved the following arrangements for the presentation by the Director-General to the Conference of summaries of reports submitted by governments under article 22 of the Constitution:

1. the practice of tabular classification of reports, without summary of their contents, which for a number of years had been followed in respect of reports subsequent to first reports after ratification, should be applied to all reports, including first reports;
2. the Director-General should make available, for consultation at the Conference, the original texts of all reports on ratified Conventions received by the Office; in addition, photocopies of these reports should be supplied on request to members of delegations.

3. This information is currently published in Part 1 of Report III.

Summaries of reports on unratified Conventions and
on Recommendations (article 19 of the Constitution)

4. Article 19 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization provides that Members shall "report to the Director-General of the International Labour Office, at appropriate intervals as requested by the Governing Body" on the position of their law and practice in regard to the matters dealt with in unratified Conventions and Recommendations. Members' obligations as regards Conventions are laid down in paragraph 5(e) of the above-mentioned article. Paragraph 6(d) deals with Recommendations, and paragraph 7(a) and (b) deals with the particular obligations of federal States. Article 23 of the Constitution provides that the Director-General shall lay before the next meeting of the Conference a summary of the reports communicated to him by Members in pursuance of article 19, and that each Member shall communicate copies of these reports to the representative organizations of employers and workers.

5. Pursuant to the above-mentioned provisions, the Governing Body selects, in principle every other year, the instruments on which Members are requested to supply reports. Since 1950 the summaries of these reports had been submitted to the Conference every year.

6. At its 218th Session (November 1981)⁽²⁾ the Governing Body decided to discontinue the publication of summaries of reports on unratified Conventions and on Recommendations and to publish only a list of reports received, on the understanding that the Director-General would make available for consultation at the Conference the originals of all reports received and that copies would be available to members of delegations on request.

7. This list is currently published in Part 2 of Report III, and as an appendix to Part 4B of the same report (i.e. the General Survey itself).

Summaries of information relating to the submission
to the competent authorities of Conventions and
Recommendations adopted by the International
Labour Conference (article 19 of the Constitution)

8. Article 19 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization prescribes, in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7, that Members shall bring the Conventions and Recommendations adopted by the International Labour Conference before the competent authorities within a specified period. Under the same provisions the governments of member States shall inform the Director-General of the International Labour Office of the measures taken to submit the Conventions and Recommendations to the competent authorities, and also communicate particulars of the authority or authorities regarded as competent, and of the action taken by them.

9. In accordance with article 23 of the Constitution a summary of the information communicated in pursuance of article 19 is submitted to the Conference every year, in Part 3 of Report III.

10. The summarized information referred to above is compiled each year in Report III (Parts 1, 2 and 3), which is published for the Conference in English, Spanish and French.

11. The Office has considered the possibility of further rationalization and savings in producing the summaries of reports (articles 19, 22 and 35 of the Constitution). It is suggested that, subject to review in the light of experience, the following arrangements be put into effect:

1. The contents of Part 1 of Report III would be published in a simplified form as an appendix to the report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. The indications concerning the content of reports (the letters B, C and D), which are often a source of confusion, will no longer appear;
2. Part 2 of Report III would be discontinued, since it duplicates the information given every year in Report III (Part 4B);
3. Part 3 of Report III could be published as it stands as an appendix to the report of the Committee of Experts;
4. The Office should continue to make available, for consultation at the Conference, the original texts of all reports received under articles 19, 22 and 35 of the Constitution. In addition, copies of these reports could be supplied on request to members of delegations.

12. The above arrangements would obviously make it unnecessary to publish Report III (Parts 1, 2 and 3) separately, and discontinuing it would produce savings of some 20,000 Swiss francs per biennium without affecting constitutional obligations or reducing the information available to delegates. These savings would contribute to efforts to rationalize the work of the Conference and to the measures taken to deal with the budget situation.

13. If the above suggestions were to be approved, the numbering of Reports III (Parts 4A and 4B and Part 5) would have to be renumbered accordingly.

14. The Committee is invited to consider the suggestions made in paragraph 11 above, and may wish to recommend that the Governing Body approve them.

Geneva, 1 November 1996.

Point for decision: Paragraph 14.

¹ GB.204/SC/3/6.

² GB.218/SC/7/7.