June 2005

1. Article

   WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR 2005 "Kopankas" in Ukraine: Sending children to the "family mine"

   14 June 2005

   This year's World Day Against Child Labour focused attention on the plight of child labourers in mines and quarries. The ILO estimates that about a tenth of the 13 million workers engaged in small-scale mining and quarrying activities worldwide are aged 5 to 17. In Ukraine there are more than 800 illegal coal mines where children are often required to do the same work as adult workers. ILO online reports from the mining communities in the Ukrainian Donbass.

2. Article

   93rd International Labour Conference Working hours around the world: balancing flexibility and protection

   13 June 2005

   In today's fast-moving world of virtual offices, home work and globalized commerce, are international labour standards on working time still needed? Yes, according to a study prepared by an ILO Commission of experts and delegates at the Organization's annual Conference. The Commission, an independent body monitoring the application of ILO standards, has concluded that international labour standards limiting working time are still necessary to contribute to fair competition between countries in a globalized world. Still, it is also clear that ILO Conventions Nos. 1 and 30 don't fully reflect modern realities in the regulation of working time and are viewed by an increasing number of countries as prescribing overly rigid standards. A panel of delegates to the Conference recently discussed the world of diversification, decentralization and individualization of working hours around the world.

3. Press release

   Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo addresses ILO Conference Decent work, debt relief needed to build a "new Africa"

   10 June 2005

   Noting that employment creation has become "an explicit and central objective" of Africa's economic and social policies, Nigerian President HE Olusegun Obasanjo today urged the continent's development partners to join it in making the decent work agenda of the International Labour Organization (ILO) a global goal.

4. Article

   WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR 2005 Digging for survival: The harsh reality of child mining worldwide

   09 June 2005

   Of the estimated 250 million child labourers worldwide, the ILO believes more than one million work in mines and quarries. Under ILO Convention No. 182, working in mines and quarries can be defined as one of the worst forms of child labour - exposing children to severe occupational hazards and often depriving them of basic freedoms. Still, the ILO says child labour in mines and quarries is a problem that can be solved.

5. Press release

   ILO urges ban on child labour in small-scale mines and quarries Initiative is part of World Day Against Child Labour activities to be held worldwide

   09 June 2005

   Workers, employers and governments are to join the International Labour Organization (ILO) in marking the World Day Against Child Labour this year by calling for the elimination of child labour in one of the world's most dangerous sectors - small-scale mining and quarrying - within five to 10 years.

6. Press release

   International Labour Conference elects new members of ILO Governing Body

   07 June 2005

   The International Labour Conference of the ILO elected new members of the Governing Body on 6 June.

7. Press release

   President Abdelaziz Bouteflika calls for a social dimension of globalization

   07 June 2005

   The next United Nations Summit scheduled in September 2005 to review the Millennium Declaration should promote renewed international efforts to build a social dimension of globalization, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, told delegates to the annual conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) here today.

8. Press release

   ILO Director-General says global jobs crisis puts democracy, freedom at risk Says creating trillions in growth, but only a trickle of jobs is unsustainable

   06 June 2005

   The huge gap between the trillions in wealth but only a trickle of jobs being created by the global economy poses a growing threat to international security, development and democracy and must be addressed urgently, International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia said today.

9. Article

   93rd International Labour Conference Promoting Youth Employment: The road to decent and productive jobs

   01 June 2005

   In 2015, 660 million young people will either be working or looking for work - an increase of 7.5 per cent over the number of youth in the labour force in 2003 - and decent employment opportunities for young people will need to grow substantially to meet this challenge. Between 2003 and 2015, the growth in the number of young people looking for a job will be greatest in sub-Saharan Africa (28 per cent) and South Asia (15 per cent). Helping youth find new paths to employment will be among the issues being discussed by delegates to this year's International Labour Conference.

May 2005

1. Press release

   ILO annual conference gets underway with election of officers

   31 May 2005

   The 93rd Session of the International Labour Conference, which will run here till 16 June, opened today, electing as its President Mr. Basim Khalil Alsalim, Minister of Labour of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.