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FOURTEENTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA

Report of the Director-General

Second Supplementary Report:
Incomplete delegations at tripartite meetings

1. Acting on the resolution concerning the strengthening of tripartism in the overall activities of the ILO, adopted by the Conference at its 56th Session (1971), the Governing Body requested the Director-General to carry out inquiries concerning the failure of governments to send tripartite delegations to sessions of the General Conference, regional conferences and industrial committees⁽¹⁾ and to report to it on this subject.

2. At its 205th Session (February-March) 1978, the Governing Body, on the recommendation of its Officers, decided to authorize the Director-General to extend the scope of the inquiries to cases of failure to send any delegations at all.

3. The last report on the subject was submitted to the Governing Body at its 265th Session (March 1996). The following report covers the 83rd, 84th (Maritime) and 85th Sessions of the Conference.

4. The table overleaf indicates the absent or incomplete delegations at the meetings concerned and summarizes the explanations received from those member States which replied to the letters of inquiry. As can be noted, the response rate has been extremely low and the replies received refer primarily to financial constraints.

Geneva, 6 November 1998.

Appendix

Absent	Incomplete delegations			Explanations received
Country	Government delegates only	No Employers' delegate	No Workers' delegate	Financial constraints	Other
83rd Session of the International Labour Conference (Geneva, 4-20 June 1996)
Antigua and Barbuda, Djibouti, Dominica, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, (2) Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Somalia, 1 Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan	Afghanistan, Belize, Comoros, Honduras, (3) Liberia 1	Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Sao Tome and Principe	Bolivia	Antigua and Barbuda, Belize	Central African Republic -- Civil unrest in the country had prevented the nomination of an Employers' delegate. Armenia - No employers' organization had yet been established.
84th (Maritime) Session of the International Labour Conference (Geneva, 8-22 October 1996)
89 member States did not attend this session. (4)	Bangladesh, Colombia, Costa Rica, 2 Ethiopia, Gabon, Haiti, Honduras, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, 2 Viet Nam, 2 Zambia	Belgium, Brazil, Senegal	Ecuador, Paraguay	Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Colombia, Pakistan, Peru, Zambia	Viet Nam: As staff of all government and national institutions had been mobilized to carry out relief work following a series of natural disasters no one from the country could be released to attend the Conference. Belgium: The shipowners' representatives had decided to remain in the country in order to resolve an unprecedented crisis in the maritime sector which had coincided with the Conference. Brazil: The Government had duly contacted the shipowners' federation on several occasions but it had failed to appoint a representative. Morocco: The shipowners had not replied to the Government's letter asking them to appoint a representative and the seafarers had failed to reach a consensus as to their most
85th Session of the International Labour Conference (Geneva, 3-19 June 1997)
Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Comoros, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Liberia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands Somalia, 1 Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan	Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1 Equatorial Guinea, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda 1	Chad, Kazakhstan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1 Sao Tome and Principe	Gambia and Mali	Dominica, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	None

1. Since January 1996, with the exception of the Tripartite Meeting on Breaking through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management (Geneva, 15-19 December 1997), the Employers' and Workers' representatives at sectoral meetings are appointed by their respective groups. Such meetings are therefore not covered in this report.

2. No letter of inquiry was sent to these countries due to the situation prevailing there at the time.

3. Represented by staff from the country's mission in Geneva.

4. Cambodia had previously indicated that it would not attend due to budgetary constraints. No letter of inquiry was sent to the remaining 88 States, on the assumption that they were not interested in the Conference agenda which specifically concerned the adoption of maritime instruments. Letters of inquiry were therefore sent only to those delegations that were incomplete.