Most accidents, however, are preventable. Sound prevention, supported by appropriate reporting and inspection practices and guided by ILO Conventions, Recommendations and Codes of Practice on occupational safety and health, needs to be implemented systematically at the national and enterprise level. It is this systematic
approach that the ILO has developed in a new Convention adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2006. The Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) establishes a framework within which occupational safety and health can be promoted. Its objective is to foster political commitments to develop, in a tripartite context, national strategies:
- to promote continuous improvement of occupational safety and health to prevent occupational injuries, diseases and deaths;
- to take active steps towards achieving progressively a safe and healthy working environment; and
- to periodically consider what measures could be taken to ratify relevant occupational safety and health Conventions of the ILO.
It also stresses the importance of the continuous promotion of a preventative safety and health culture.