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GB.274/LILS/8
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Committee on Legal Issues and International Labour Standards |
LILS |
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EIGHTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA
UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status
of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, 1997: Monitoring
1
1. At its 273rd Session (November 1998), the Governing Body took note of the information contained in the Committee's report concerning the decision by the 154th Session (May 1998) of the UNESCO Executive Board to authorize consultations with the ILO on the possible extension of the mandate of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (CEART) to monitor the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, 1997, and subsequent decisions to defer consideration of this question. It also noted the position of the Worker members that strict deadlines for examination of the question should be fixed and observed, and that the matter should be re-examined at the present session of the Governing Body, a position supported by the Employer members.
2. In consultation with UNESCO the Office has drawn up a timetable which would call for parallel examination of the legal, financial and practical issues involved in this question by the two secretariats, joint consultations as necessary, and submission of a paper for consideration by the Governing Body at its 276th Session (November 1999), and by the 157th Session of the Executive Board of UNESCO (October 1999). If a decision is taken by both bodies in favour of an extended mandate for the CEART, documents will be prepared by the joint secretariat permitting a first consideration of its new role at CEART's Seventh Ordinary Session in 2000.
3. In accordance with this timetable, internal consultations are under way to clarify the Office's position concerning the legal, financial and organizational issues. Among these issues are the definition of CEART's mandate in examining an international normative instrument adopted by UNESCO, the composition and functioning of any subsidiary body set up within the framework of CEART to monitor and report on the instrument, and the resource implications of the additional work for the ILO and for the members of CEART. Preliminary indications are that there are no major obstacles to the extension of the CEART mandate and its fulfilment of such a role, should the Governing Body decide in favour.
4. A parallel review is under way in UNESCO. The Office has recently been informed by the UNESCO secretariat that a preliminary paper on UNESCO's position will shortly be sent to the ILO, and that consultations between the two secretariats to determine final positions on the feasibility of an extended mandate for CEART could take place during the second quarter of 1999. This would permit the submission of a paper to the 276th Session (November 1999) of the Governing Body, at which time the decision by the Executive Board of UNESCO should also be known.
5. The Committee on Legal Issues and International Labour Standards may wish to recommend that the Governing Body invite the Director-General to continue and complete consultations with the Director-General of UNESCO with a view to submitting a paper by the Governing Body at its 276th Session (November 1999) on the possible extension of the mandate of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts (CEART) to encompass monitoring the application of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel.
Geneva, 15 February 1999.
Point for decision: Paragraph 5.
1. Previously issued by error as GB.274/LILS/9/1.