Compilation of decisions of the Committee on Freedom of Association

Right of employers and workers organizations to establish federations and confederations and to affiliate with international organizations of employers and workers12

Affiliation with international organizations of workers and employers

General principles

1. International trade union solidarity constitutes one of the fundamental objectives of any trade union movement and underlies the principle laid down in Article 5 of Convention No. 87 that any organization, federation or confederation shall have the right to affiliate with international organizations of workers and employers.

1. Unions and confederations should be free to affiliate with international federations or confederations of their own choosing without intervention by the political authorities.

1. Article 5 of Convention No. 87 as is clear from the preparatory work on the instrument merely gives expression to the fact that workers or employers are united by a solidarity of interests, a solidarity which is not limited either to one specific undertaking or even to a particular industry, or even to the national economy, but extends to the whole international economy. Furthermore, the right to organize corresponds to the practice followed by the United Nations and the International Labour Organization, both of which have formally recognized international organizations of workers and employers by associating them directly with their own activities.

1. The Committee has emphasized the importance that it attaches to the fact that no obstacle should be placed in the way of the affiliation of workers organizations, in full freedom, with any international organization of workers of their own choosing.

1. The Committee has considered that there might be justification for one complainants contention that the principle of the right of workers organizations to affiliate with international organizations of workers includes by implication the right to disaffiliate from an international organization.