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86th Session
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Address by Mr. Pascal Couchepin
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First of all, I would like to thank the President for his kind words. I was very touched by his warmly welcome. He has very clearly expressed the feelings I have towards your Organization.
The Swiss Government and people are very pleased to be hosting the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference. On this occasion, I would particularly like to salute Mr. Jean-Jacques Oechslin, the President of the Conference and congratulate him on his election. I would also like to pay my respect to the Director- General Mr. Michel Hansenne and Mr. Somavía, the Director-General elect. I wish him every success in the accomplishment of his important task.
It is an honour for me to address you at this, your annual International Labour Conference. I am particularly grateful since it is the first contact I have had with your Organization and with your Conference. It is an opportunity for me to show you my personal attachment to your Organization and to remind you of my country's support for the ILO.
The central concerns of our society show that social issues already dominate the world and will do so even more in future. It is for the International Labour Organization as a matter of priority to find appropriate responses to these challenges and to adapt to a constantly changing world. I would like to pay tribute to the courage of the Director-General, Mr. Michel Hansenne, who, apart from his tireless dedication as head of the ILO to international Geneva, has dared to embark on their difficult process of adapting the ILO. I would like to assure him of the support of Switzerland in this endeavour.
Since 1919 the International Labour Organization has achieved international legitimacy which deserves our respect and our support.
The ILO charted a firm course in the face of adversity and has become the leading organization for promoting fundamental social rights, through unceasing effort to bring about social justice, decent working conditions, and social and economic security for workers.
Thanks to its tripartite structure and its mandate, the ILO has done a pioneering work by contributing to the establishment of international framework conditions intended to promote equitable social and economic relations.
The multilateral context and the framework conditions have changed considerably in recent years. New technologies, which are the motor of the economy, have compressed time and space. They have revolutionized trade and called into question certain social advances. They have also forced governments and public authorities to review their role. This observation also needs time for an international organization such as the ILO. In the face of the emergence of new actors on the international scene, the ILO is no longer alone in the field. On the strength of its legitimacy and its past it must regain its pioneering spirit to look towards to the future and to adapt to the values of a changing world by developing new ideas. It must redefine its role in the international community.
There will be no unique national response to the major challenges of the world economy, nor will there be a unique response in terms of international policies. The new interdependencies that bind us together call for intergovernmental cooperation which is as consistent and broad as possible, a form of cooperation which will enable us to take up the challenges of development and respond to current social, cultural and environmental issues.
In this respect, I would like to share with you a few remarks inspired by the WTO Ministerial Conference which I chaired in May.
The increasing internationalization of production and markets is neither a political programme nor an ideology. It is the result of economic and technological developments which are both dynamic and inevitable.
By creating the WTO, the international community has proved that it is capable of coming up with the first specific response to the challenge thrown down by the new economic configuration. The success is encouraging and demonstrates that the multilateral approach retains its full validity. Consensus and consultation are the routes that we must to follow in order to continue the strengthening and renewal of the ILO. I would also observe that there is an obvious degree of complementarity between the objectives of the multilateral trade system, on the one hand, and those of the International Labour Organization, on the other.
World trade has been a powerful vector of economic growth and prosperity. In the last 50 years it has greatly contributed to the improvement of living standards in the world and to social progress. It is in fact the countries which are most open to international trade which have the most developed systems of social redistribution.
To apply protectionist measures in order to promote the respect of labour standards would thus be a contradictory strategy. Such measures would deprive the poorest countries of one of the main motors of development, namely, the possibility of participating in world trade. The members of the WTO have indeed clearly rejected the use of labour standards for protectionist purposes. They did so at the Singapore Ministerial Conference.
Nevertheless, the costs of social adjustments due to international competition and the international division of labour are giving rise to serious concerns. These are often exploited to call into question the policies of openness which have been pursued up until now. In the face of these trends we must ensure that the liberalization of trade and social justice will mutually stimulate each other.
The achievement of this objective calls in particular for us to act consistently both within the WTO and the ILO, but it also implies the establishment of effective cooperation between these two organizations. This rapprochement should permit an open discussion on the interactions between trade and fundamental labour standards. If problems are identified, solutions will have to be developed which are acceptable to all and do not lend themselves to highjacking for protectionist purposes.
However, we should not forget that the rôle of the ILO in international issues relating to labour remains paramount. By strengthening the means open to it, that organization can improve respect for fundamental labour standards.
The French writer Saint-Simon once wrote that society does not live on negative but on positive ideas. If the ILO wants to make a success of its mission in the future, it must offer our societies positive ideas and concerted solutions at the multilateral level in order to make a success of the social dimension of the globalization of the world economy.
Each country will then be called upon to respect and enforce the workers' fundamental rights. Eventually, the observance of these fundamental rights will come to be regarded as a comparative advantage and proof of a healthy national economy.
But positive ideas are not enough in themselves. They must be accompanied by concrete measures. The ILO is currently facing one of the most difficult and decisive moments of its long existence. It has to take up the social challenge of the globalization of the world economy which calls for courage and a great deal of political nous as well. The Organization has come up with some very positive ideas in this respect and I should like to recall briefly some of them and the concrete measures already adopted, noting also Switzerland's support for them.
First, in the wake of the Copenhagen Summit in 1995 and the WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore at the end of 1996, the ILO decided on a core of seven fundamental Conventions. Their ratification is requested for all States and all ILO member States. My country supports this effort and I can confirm that the Swiss Government intends in the near future to propose that Parliament ratify Conventions Nos. 98 and 138, concerning respectively the right to organize and bargain collectively and the minimum age for access to employment. The ratification process has now entered a decisive consultation process with the civil authorities.
In the second significant step, you are going to enshrine the fundamental values of the ILO in a Declaration. I sincerely hope that the Conference will adopt a balanced and pragmatic text provided with an effective follow-up system which will enhance the ILO's credibility.
Thirdly, in order to promote dignity at the workplace, you are laying the first stone of a building which is intended to combat the worst aspects of child labour. This international Convention is absolutely indispensable but it will not be sufficient on its own. Help is needed for populations and governments facing the task of ending child labour. Here, too, I have the honour to announce that the Swiss authorities have decided to contribute one million Swiss francs of development aid to the IPEC programme.
As regards the issue of child labour, the world's attention is currently focused on Geneva and this Conference. The organizers and the participants in the Global March against Child Labour were met here. I salute their courage, which has made us aware of our human and political responsibilities and of the fact that the war against poverty is also becoming globalized.
The interest shown by the media in the activities of your Organization also shows that the measures taken by the ILO must go hand in hand with a sound public relations policy which will bring the Organization even closer to its constituents and to the various social actors.
Switzerland intends in future to participate even more closely in the decisions taken by the ILO. I can confirm that my Government would like to apply for titular membership of the Governing Body for the period 1999-2002 and to chair the Governing Body for one year during that period.
In that context we propose that the ILO continue its deliberations on the relevance of its role in the context of globalization and with regard to its opening up to new economic and social actors such as non-governmental organizations and transnational enterprises. Just as governments must seek new ways of cooperation with public authorities, employers and trade unions must reflect on how the world of business and labour can be better integrated. We also feel that we should examine and propose new means of reinforcing the ILO's credibility, improving its supervisory system and facilitating cooperation between it and the other competent international organizations.
Ladies and gentlemen, the social dimension of globalization should be one of the major concerns of this Organization on the eve of the twenty-first century. But the ILO must go even further and endow itself with all the means necessary to become the true social conscience of the world.
The economy and work must serve humanity. The objective must be the elimination or at least a marked reduction in social discrimination and in the gulf between rich and poor.
Current events show us every day that the relaunch of the world economy by the strengthening of international economic cooperation is not yet sufficient to erase the disparities between countries and to overcome unemployment and underemployment. The new global distribution of labour is making workers in all regions in the world compete with one another. Coordinated improvements in working conditions and social security worldwide should now be an integral part of the ILO's traditional mission.
The ILO is the only international organization which is tripartite in nature. This original feature enables it to bring together all the players of the world economy and to become the main centre of excellence in the field of employment, work and social security.
I exhort the ILO to continue the dialogue which it has started with the WTO, the Bretton Woods institutions and within the G8. The ILO is the natural partner of the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, UNCTAD and OECD, whose aims are also intimately bound up with the objective of globalization of the world economy with a genuine social conscience in tomorrow's world. The ILO must reinforce its activities, together with the WTO and Bretton Woods institutions, in order to become one of the three main pillars of the new world economic and social order.
Switzerland, and Geneva in particular, is proud to host your Conference each year, which is a genuine parliament for the world of work. Switzerland will continue to deploy all the necessary efforts to ensure that Geneva will remain the centre of this social, moral and economic conscience.
In the year 2000 in this Palais des Nations, all the members of the United Nations General Assembly will be meeting here for a follow-up to the Copenhagen meeting. The ILO must play a central role in that event and my country will spare no effort to give the event its due importance.
At this point, I would like to thank the delegations who supported our proposal at the recent preparatory Committee meeting in New York.
I would call on the participants at your Conference and at that future General Assembly, governments, employers, workers and NGOs, to reinforce the synergy between the organizations I have mentioned and to put forward innovative and imaginative proposals which will serve social development.
Geneva plays a crucial role in the rapprochement of all peoples of the world thanks to the presence here of numerous international organizations. Thanks to its determination to use its resources in the service of peace, freedom and human dignity, the ILO should continue to enjoy a privileged place here.
Thank you for your attention.