LABOUR: New Head of ILO from the Developing South

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 23 1998 (IPS) - For the first time in the history of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the leadership of the world body will be in the hands of a representative of the developing world, Chile’s Juan Somavia, elected Monday as director- general for the 1999-2004 period.

The South American diplomat and academic beat Maria Nieves Roldan-Confesor from the Philippines by 44 to 12 votes in the election held by the 56 members of the tripartite board – government, workers and business – that governs the ILO.

Somavia said the presence of the first director-general from a developing country would be reflected in the body’s “sensitivity in looking towards Third World countries,” and that his origin in the southern hemisphere would favour “the indispensable comprehension of the multicultural dimension.”

ILO leadership needs to constantly be aware that “we live in a plural, differentiated world,” where there is not necessarily a single solution to any given problem – an allusion to his aim to rebuild the tripartite consensus that governs the ILO.

That means, he explained, that the three sectors should jointly define the five or six basic social guidelines and objectives.

Somavia’s candidacy, born of an initiative by the union representatives and formally proposed by the Chilean government, obtained the immediate support of the bloc of Latin American and Caribbean countries, and the backing of the US State Department in the final stage.

But the overwhelming vote in his favour reflected the widespread support won by the Chilean diplomat among all sectors and regions represented in the ILO governing body.

The 57-year-old Somavia will take office Mar. 4, 1999, by which time the ILO is expected to have overcome the debate on critical issues that are currently occupying the attention of the governing body.

At any rate, Somavia said he shared the view of the outgoing director-general, Belgium’s Michel Hansenne, that the ILO should issue a declaration of principles on basic labour rights.

The proposed draft declaration would ratify the principles laid out in the seven basic ILO covenants on basic human rights.

But some delegations, especially government representatives, have expressed their fear that the declaration would imply recognition of the social clause, the name given to an initiative designed to condition international trade on compliance with certain labour norms.

The December 1996 World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference in Singapore ruled out the inclusion of the social clause in multilateral talks on trade.

On the contrary, the WTO conference decided, as demanded by the delegations of developing countries, that labour norms be left up to the ILO.

The ILO’s final position on the declaration of basic rights will be adopted by the International Labour Conference, to be held in June in Geneva.

With respect to the debate on social issues, Somavia warned that “everything has to be under the command of the ILO, an entity that has its traditions, its conventions and its values.”

But we also “have to see the modern way of expressing all that in today’s world, placing the human being at the centre once again,” and we must not “forget that there are no stable investments in unstable societies, and that there is no lasting economic efficiency without social efficiency,” he added.

Somavia, a prominent social and academic researcher in Latin America, achieved international reknown when he presided over the preparatory committee of the 1995 Social Summit in Copenhagen.

He is currently chairman of the UN Economic and Social Council and Chile’s ambassador to the UN in New York.