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THIRD ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Revision of the procedure for the examination of representations submitted in accordance with article 24 of the ILO Constitution

1. The Committee will recall that at the November 1997 (270th) Session of the Governing Body, it was decided to place an item regarding the revision of the procedure for the examination of representations submitted under article 24 of the Constitution on the agenda of the present session.

2. The discussion of this issue was to focus both on possible solutions, as requested by the Officers of the Governing Body, to the rising number of representations, a trend which had been regularly observed for several years, as well as to examine whether or not the representation procedure had a suspensive effect upon the regular supervisory procedures; this problem arose at the last session of the Conference in respect of the examination, by the Committee on the Application of Standards, of the application by the Russian Federation of Convention No. 95 at a time when a representation on the very same issue was under examination by the Governing Body.

3. In the meantime, two factors have prompted the Office to consider that it would be preferable to postpone this examination until November. The initial survey of the issue within the Office has revealed the numerous ramifications that a revision of the present procedure might have in relation to other aspects of the supervisory system. These ramifications are such that it would be very difficult to deal with the matter in isolation. As it is, the Governing Body will be resuming in November its examination of the follow-up to the second part of the Director-General's Report on the ILO's standard-setting action relating to the evaluation of the application of international labour standards and the comments made thereupon; this discussion should, therefore, help to place the reform of the representation procedure in a broader context. The issue of the suspensive effect of representations will be examined at the same time.

Geneva, 11 March 1998.