International Labor Organization

The International Labour Organization (ILO) was created in 1919. Since 1946 the ILO is a specialized agency of the UN. The Organization aims at promoting social and economic progress and improving labour conditions.

• creation of coordinated policies and programs directed at solving social and labour issues;
• adoption of international labour standards in the form of conventions and recommendations and control over their implementation;
• assistance to member-states in solving social and labour problems;
• human rights protection (the right to work, freedom of association, collective negotiations, protection against forced labour, protection against discrimination, etc.);
• research and publication of works on social and labour issues.

The basis of the ILO is the tripartite principle, i.e. the negotiations within the Organization are held between the representatives of governments, trade unions, and member-states’ employers.

187 conventions and recommendations on social and labour issues have been adopted since 1919.

The International Labour Conference (ILC) is the ILO superior body convened at least once a year. The Conference deals with examining and adopting the international norms in the social and labour sphere, and with discussing universally important questions.

The Governing Body is the ILO executive body which directs the Organization’s activities in the period between the ILO sessions and defines the order of the Conference decisions’ implementation.

The International Labour Office is the ILO permanent secretariat.

The Republic of Belarus has been an ILO member-state since 1954. Belarus ratified 51 ILO conventions, including 8 fundamental conventions.

Membership in the ILO allows Belarus to study and the apply the international expertise of settling social and labor disputes, to develop social partnerships (government — trade unions — entrepreneurs), to improve and to regulate the labor market. Participation in the activities of the ILO helps to develop labor legislation based on world experience, it promotes the development of entrepreneurship, and the solution of employment problems.

On 27 February 2019, a tripartite conference with the assistance of the International Labor Office took place in Minsk with the participation of representatives of the Government, associations of trade unions and employers, and the ILO experts on the development of social dialogue and tripartism.

On 26 February 2019, a meeting of the Council was held in Minsk with the participation of representatives of the ILO. During the event participants discussed problematic issues arising in the development and implementation of agreements of various levels. Some agreements were reached to continue the review of this issue with the participation of the ILO experts.

On 13 February 2020, in Geneva, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva H.E. Mr. Yury Ambrazevich deposited to the Director General of the International Labor Organization Mr. Guy Ryder the instruments of the Belarus accession to the ILO Convention on paid vacations (Convention No. 132) and the ILO Convention on safety and health in mines (Convention No. 176). The ILO Director General highly valued the decision of the Republic of Belarus as an important step towards ensuring high international standards of decent work in the country. Belarus Permanent Representative discussed with Mr. Ryder current stock of cooperation between the Government of Belarus and the ILO Secretariat, as well as the possible directions of its further development.