All ILO Newsroom content
February 2012
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Article
Campaign for domestic workers’ rights gathers pace
29 February 2012
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, 8 March, is “Empower Rural Women, End Poverty and Hunger”. One path that many rural women take to escape poverty is to become a domestic worker in a big city household or overseas. Yet when they do, many find themselves exploited, with little or no legal protection to guarantee basic rights to pay, rest and freedom from abuse. However following the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), the campaign to ensure domestic workers’ rights are respected is gaining momentum. By Lotte Kejser, Chief Technical Advisor, ILO Country Office for Indonesia and Timor Leste
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News
ILO warns youth job crisis threatens social cohesion, calls for more and better jobs for youth
27 February 2012
Addressing a special event organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York, the head of the ILO Employment Sector, José-Manuel Salazar, has warned of the risks of a lost generation due to a growing youth employment crisis, and called for new and stronger partnerships to create more and better jobs for young people.
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Statement
“Partnerships for more & better jobs for Young People” - Statement by Jose M. Salazar-Xirinachs
27 February 2012
Concluding statement by Jose M. Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Director for Employment Sector of the ILO delivered at "Breaking New Ground: Partnerships for more & better jobs for Young People", an event co-organized by the ILO, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) to strengthen the partnership between governments and the private sector in advancing youth employment and decent work.
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International Labour Review, Vol. 150 (2011), No. 3–4
New ILO standards on decent work for domestic workers: A summary of the issues and discussions
24 February 2012
The world’s millions of domestic workers are mostly excluded from national labour laws because they work in private homes, in employment relationships with special characteristics. They are highly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse – often overworked, underpaid and subjected to violence. Adopted in June 2011, the ILO’s Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 201) embody the resolve of governments and workers’ and employers’ organizations worldwide to remedy this situation. The authors of this paper, who were closely associated with the preparations and tripartite negotiations that led to the adoption of these instruments, review their contents and highlights of the underlying debates.
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News
World Day of Social Justice 2012: Somavia calls for commitment to a “new era of social justice”
20 February 2012
ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia, has called for a commitment to a new era of social justice, warning that “there is a widespread feeling that too many people, economies, and societies have been on a rigged course leaving them on the losing end”.
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Statement
“A new era of social justice”: Statement by ILO Director General, for World Day of Social Justice 2012
20 February 2012
“A new era of social justice”: Statement by Juan Somavia, ILO Director General, On the occasion of World Day of Social Justice- 20 February 2012.
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News
ILO to play active role in new U.N. Fund for disability rights
17 February 2012
The International Labour Organization is to play an active role in the implementation of a new trust fund established recently by six United Nations agencies to promote disability rights and help countries improve policies, data-gathering and service delivery to persons with disabilities.
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News
ILO launches comprehensive new database on labour standards
12 February 2012
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has launched a comprehensive new database providing open access to the latest information on ILO international labour standards as well as national labour and social security laws.
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Article
After the storm: Rebuilding livelihoods in the Philippines
02 February 2012
Natural disasters destroy livelihoods but the aftermath also offers opportunities to create jobs and revitalise the economy as there will be high demand for construction and other recovery works. For the last ten years, the ILO has engaged in post-disaster reconstruction in countries in Asia and the Pacific, including China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and beyond. So the Organization was also prepared to help when tropical storm Washi heavily affected villages and major cities in the Philippines last December. Minette Rimando from the ILO office in Manila reports.
January 2012
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Video
"Averting a Lost Generation" - Session of the World economic Forum annual meeting 2012
27 January 2012
Speaking at the panel on “Averting a lost generation” during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr. Somavia said the youth employment crisis had reached unprecedented and intolerable dimensions, with four out of 10 unemployed in the world being either a young woman or man.