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86th Session
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Address by Mr. Jean-Jacques Oechslin, President of the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference
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At the outset, I should like to express my gratitude to the Conference for having taken up the proposal made by my friends in the Employers' group to appoint me President of this Conference. I also wish to thank the other groups without whose support I could not have been elected. This goes in particular for the African governments who most graciously agreed to forego their turn by not putting forward any candidate at this session. I see that decision as a significant gesture of respect for tripartism and also as an act of friendship towards a man whose personal and professional life has been strongly influenced by the African continent.
My gratitude also goes to the Workers' group which has given its generous and undivided support to my candidacy and whose fundamental convictions regarding the ILO's role -- leaving aside the natural differences inherent in our respective groups' responsibilities -- I share. The cordial and often amicable relations prevailing between the members of the different groups is one of the gratifying aspects of our meetings.
May I also personally thank those who have just spoken from this rostrum and, in particular Mr. El-Farhan, Chairperson of the Government group, Rolf Thüsing, Chairperson of the Employers' group, and Bill Brett, Chairperson of the Workers' group.
This election is an honour, not only for me personally but also for the organizations I represent -- the International Organization of Employers and the National Council of French Employers which, together with the General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, makes up my country's Employers' delegation to the Conference. Above all, it is an act of recognition of the role played by the Employers' group within this Organization. It is with some considerable personal attachment that I remember my mentor and friend, Pierre Waline and also Gullmar Bergenström, as well as so many other members of the Employers' group who have served this Conference.
While my being unanimously elected is an outstanding honour for the Employers' group, with which I have been associated for almost 38 years, I would also wish to associate my country, France, with this honour, given that I have been a member of its delegation to the Conference, without interruption, since 1969. I should like to pay a special tribute to the late Paul Ramadier, Alexandre Parodi and Gabriel Ventejol, three prestigious figures who led our delegation during that period. I also salute in friendship and gratitude Mr. Yvon Chotard.
May I also thank my French Worker colleagues; our relations of mutual respect and friendship have never been jeopardized by our inevitable differences of opinion. As for my friends in the Employers' delegation, they are well acquainted with the high regard in which I hold them and I am grateful to them for having silently put up with a delegate who has been too absorbed by his group's responsibilities.
I welcome the representatives of our guest international organizations. Their presence is not merely an act dictated by protocol. Our institutions must work more closely together. This Conference will doubtless offer sufficient illustration of that need. I also have pleasure in welcoming the Swiss authorities. Their support to our Organization has been unfailingly generous and constructive. May I at this point take the opportunity of remembering my ancestors, citizens of this country, some of whose personality traits I have probably inherited.
In 1941, during a dark hour in world history and in the history of our Organization, an ILO Conference was convened in the United States. Sir John Forbes-Watson, my predecessor as leader of the Employers' group who had been elected Vice-President of that extraordinary assembly, was to say, and I quote "For 21 years, I have spent my time in criticizing the policy of this Organization, yet I have never criticized the principles upon which the Organization is based. Above all the right of free men, first and foremost, to associate with each other and to say frankly what is in their minds".I shall return in due course to freedom of speech. I and those of my colleagues whom you will be electing, will have the duty of ensuring that that freedom is respected. Most of all, however, I should like to highlight the values which unite us above and beyond the legitimate conflicts in the immediate interests which we represent.
One of the main items on our Conference agenda is the question of including the fundamental components of these values in a declaration. I trust that we shall manage to live up to that ambition. Our Organization, the oldest in the United Nations' family, has always been on the forefront in the defence of human rights in the world of work. Without any doubt, it is now high time to reaffirm the principles for which we have been fighting for more than three-quarters of a century. As part of the major process of sorting out the respective roles of international institutions, we must affirm the ILO's own vocation by spelling out these principles with clarity and in solemn form. Such an act would hardly prove credible if, at the same time, we did not manage to modernize our procedures in order better to ensure effective application in all of our countries. Amongst these values, I should like to place freedom of association and its corollary, the right to collective bargaining, in top positions. Tripartism would be an entirely fictitious concept if our non-governmental groups did not represent associations created as a result of the exercise of free choice by their members, associations capable of speaking with entirely independent voices and organizing themselves as they see fit. This fundamental freedom most be protected, even from the sometimes apparently well-intentioned solicitudes of certain governments.
It is also incumbent upon us to fight any form of discrimination, on grounds, for example, of gender, political or religious opinion or on grounds of origin. It is still necessary to reaffirm, just as did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, and I quote "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights".
As His Holiness Pope John-Paul II declared from the rostrum of this Conference, we must not cease to fight for the cause of man, his dignity, and the inalienable rights flowing therefrom. The freedom of association that we defend is all part and parcel of human rights and civil freedoms.
As Etienne de la Boétie, the friend of Montagne, said so fittingly, "freedom is such a great and singular asset that, if ever lost, all imaginable evils swarm in to replace it and even the remaining blessings become faded and lose their savour, corrupted by servitude".
And for those who may be surprised by this profession of faith by an Employers' delegate, may I say that freedom of enterprise is also a human right and that it can only develop in a general climate of freedom.
Forced labour, another major issue which comes within our mandate, is the modern form of slavery and bondage. It means treating human beings as objects and not as people endowed with rights. This is why the contractual nature of the employment relationship constitutes the best guarantee for human dignity in the workplace and for freely chosen employment, despite the economic constraints with which we are only too familiar. It is also up to us to search for the ways and means of making the market economy work effectively enough to create an adequate number of productive jobs.
This Conference will also be taking place under the banner of the protection of children forced to work. Children constitute the most vulnerable section of our societies and we cannot tolerate their exploitation under any possible pretext. This is all part of a moral imperative which is evident to each and every one of us. At the same time, we should not forget that child labour also constitutes a horrendous wastage of human resources. It is children who bear the hope of our society's future -- if they can be properly educated and trained -- because it is human beings who constitute the real wealth of nations. The child whose life is prematurely whittled away in servile labour may be a Mozart or an Einstein. He or she is most certainly a potential technician or engineer, entrepreneur, computer expert or innovative farmer that his or her country so sorely needs.
The struggle against exploitation in the form of child labour has unleashed much emotion worldwide and that is quite natural. Following this sitting, we shall be receiving the representatives of a march which has struck people's consciences. Of course, we all have sympathy for this cause but our real responsibility now is to prepare an instrument which genuinely lives up to the expectations that everyone has of us. The results of our work must act as a durable guide and an inspiration for all States. We shall take all possible steps to ensure that this crucial task is performed in a dispassionate climate.
One delicate item on our agenda is the second reading of the document regarding contract labour. We have rarely had occasion to study such a legally and conceptually complex issue. The members of the Committee will have to display much imagination and a spirit of compromise in their endeavours to produce a result which is acceptable to the broad majority and, above all, of use to those potentially affected by the subject.
The item regarding the general conditions to stimulate job creation in small and medium-sized enterprises is no less important. In almost all our countries, employment remains an issue of serious concern and has to be a major priority for our Organization -- how can one speak of rights to those who do not have the means to exist? Consequently, we cannot remain indifferent to the job creation potential of these enterprises, and the International Labour Office and the Turin Centre happen to have relevant practical experience. We know that employment is not something that depends upon decrees or resolutions. It comes from the growth of innovative and high-performance enterprises capable of offering consumers the goods and services they want at affordable prices, and it is still necessary to ensure that legislation does not abusively hold back the creation of enterprises.
Today, and this is a worldwide phenomenon, we are seeing the persistence or aggravation of intolerable human rights situations, in particular those which fall within our mandate. The general public internationally is becoming aware of these situations. This fact is also a consequence of globalization, a possibly ambiguous concept, but which neatly describes a global process that no country can hide from and which has a direct impact on the world of work and on every enterprise. Social standards are often talked about and even celebrated. That was the case for instance in this very meeting room during the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization. The ILO must meet that challenge. That is why this year's Conference is so significant. We have a burning obligation to succeed. If we produce mediocre results we shall have missed a historic opportunity that we shall not be given again and we shall be certain of losing our relevance.
This year the Conference will set up a Resolutions Committee. It has an important role to play. It is often there that new ideas have emerged to boost our activities.
Lastly, we shall also be called upon to examine the Reports of the Chairperson of the Governing Body and of the Director-General as well as the various annexes. All interested delegates will consequently have an opportunity to speak on the Organization's activities.
We shall have the honour of receiving His Excellency, President Caldera of the Republic of Venezuela, a most distinguished figure whose interest in our Organization has been clear since the very beginnings of his career. We shall also be welcoming Ms. Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her visit, at a session being held under the human rights banner, will be of very special importance. We shall also have the honour to welcome the Federal Councillor, Mr. Pascal Couchepin, who, among other things, recently presided over the recent Conference of the World Trade Organization.
As I mentioned at the outset of my address, the Conference Office's task is to ensure Conference members freedom of speech. Just like any freedom it has its limits, in particular the language used must respect established practice which is a mark of courtesy but, above all, a mark of respect for other delegates and the opinions they express. I rely upon you to ensure that our discussions are frank but that they bear the dignity befitting the highest international body in the social field. Time will be our foe in that there will not be enough of it. We shall therefore need to make rational use of it. Speakers of whatever rank will need to understand that if they exceed the time allotted to them other delegates will be obliged to take the floor at uncustomary and awkward times of the day. I would not want us to be forced unduly to infringe ILO principles regarding work time and weekly rest periods. Personally, I shall endeavour to open our sittings promptly at the time at which they are planned to begin. It would be quite a revolution of a different order if we were to manage to save a few hours or even an entire sitting. I am perfectly willing to open the discussion at the prescribed time even if I am the only person in the hall. Without further ado, therefore, I invite you to begin our work.