International Labour Conference 19 Provisional Record PART TWO Eighty-ninth Session, Geneva, 2001 PART TWO OBSERVATIONS AND INFORMATION CONCERNING PARTICULAR COUNTRIES I. OBSERVATIONS AND INFORMATION CONCERNING REPORTS ON RATIFIED CONVENTIONS (ARTICLE 22 OF THE CONSTITUTION) A. General Observations and Information concerning Certain Countries (a) Failure to supply reports for the past two years or more on the A Government representative of Denmark regretted that the application of ratified Conventions ILO had not received reports from the Faeroe Islands. The Danish Government had asked the Faeroe Islands to comply with its re- The Worker members emphasized that the fulfilment of the ob- porting obligations. The Government had had several exchanges ligation to submit reports was a key element of the supervisory sys- with the Faeroe Islands in this regard, talked to the relevant offi- tem of the ILO. The information contained in these reports also cials, sent letters requesting that the reports be provided, and had needed to be as detailed as possible. They regretted that the chang- informed them of their obligation to report on ratified Conventions. es that had been made during the past years in the submission pro- He reminded the Committee that the Faeroe Islands had complete cedure of reports with the intention of simplifying the task for gov- autonomy in the area of social policy, and as a result the Govern- ernments had not resulted in an improvement in the situation. The ment of Denmark could not intervene, nor could it submit the re- countries that had not fulfilled their obligation to submit a report ports for the Faeroe Islands. Nevertheless, he assured the Commit- benefited from an unfair advantage, since the absence of a report tee that his Government would continue to urge the Faeroe Islands made it impossible for the Committee to review their national law to comply with their reporting obligations. and practices with regard to ratified Conventions. Consequently, The Employer members noted that few governments had asked the Committee should urge member States to adopt the necessary to address the Committee on this subject. Many governments were measures so that in the future they could fulfil this obligation. not accredited to the Conference and, of those that were, only two The Employer members had previously pointed to the fact that had taken the floor. A Government representative of Bosnia and the ILO supervisory machinery was considered to be the most effi- Herzegovina had referred to her Government’s lack of experience cient system in the entire family of United Nations agencies. This, in explaining its failure to supply reports. While this was under- however, had to be viewed in relative terms, since no action at the standable, the Employer members considered that it should be pos- level of international law could occur unless States voluntarily co- sible to overcome this obstacle with the technical assistance of the operated with the supervisory process, as they were sovereign Office. They also pointed out that countries received clear instruc- States. Therefore, the first step of the process was for member tions from the Office on how to draft reports. Responding to the States to submit reports on the application of ratified Conventions. Government representative of Denmark’s comments on the Faeroe In this respect, the Employer members recalled that the reporting Islands, the Employer members understood that Denmark was process had been facilitated some years ago when the intervals be- powerless to intervene. Nonetheless, they considered that the cen- tween reporting periods had been extended. The Employer mem- tral Government should be in a position to wield some influence to bers were happy to note that many countries complied with their encourage the Faeroe Islands to comply with their reporting obliga- reporting obligations. Unfortunately, many other countries were tions. In this regard, they recalled that it was of the utmost impor- still not supplying reports to the Committee of Experts. This was tance that governments meet these obligations, particularly where regrettable, as the Committee was therefore unable to ascertain reports had not been supplied for many years. The failure to supply whether those member States were complying with the standards reports should therefore be noted in the general report of the Con- which they had agreed to implement. This gave those countries an ference Committee. unfair advantage over the countries that complied with their report- The Worker members noted that only two countries had provid- ing obligations. They therefore urged those member States listed in ed explanations regarding their failure to comply with the obliga- paragraph 187 to comply with their obligations in the future. tion to provide reports. Other countries were either absent or not A Government representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina re- accredited to the Conference. The countries that had provided an called that her country had a particularly specific type of structure explanation had referred to a number of elements to justify their and organization and for this reason had encountered certain prob- failure to submit the reports. However, the Worker members con- lems concerning the functioning and coordination between the in- sidered that the Committee needed to continue to urge member stitutions of the Federated State and its two Entities. Added to States to take all possible measures to fulfil this obligation. The these difficulties, it had faced problems due to the lack of experi- need to strengthen the supervisory system would never be achieved ence in the area of the preparation of reports, which explained why in practice if governments did not fulfil the obligation to submit re- it had not yet been able to comply with its obligations to submit ports on the Conventions they had ratified. Finally, the Worker reports in due time under the ILO Constitution. members emphasized that the Committee should remind govern- She expressed the conviction that the new Government, formed ments that they could request technical assistance from the ILO. in March, would make every effort to comply with the requirements The Committee recalled the fundamental importance of the and recommendations stated in the report of the Committee of Ex- supply of reports on the application of ratified Conventions within perts. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications of Bosnia the stipulated time limit. This obligation constituted the founda- and Herzegovina, as the national institution responsible for the co- tions of the supervisory system. The Committee expressed its firm ordination between the Entities, undertook to draw up a general hope that the governments of Afghanistan, Armenia, Bosnia and report on the basis of the partial reports already prepared on two Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark Conventions by the two Entities, which would be transmitted to the (Faeroe Islands), Equatorial Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s ILO in the shortest possible time. Democratic Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierre Leone, So- The speaker thanked the ILO for its understanding in the light lomon Islands, United Republic of Tanzania (Zanzibar), The of the complex situation faced by Bosnia and Herzegovina and for former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkmenistan and its support and willingness to assist, if necessary, the Government in Uzbekistan, which had not to date submitted all or the majority of the translation of its documents. the reports on the application of ratified Conventions, would do so 19 Part 2/1 as soon as possible, and decided to mention these cases in the ap- The Worker members emphasized the fact that only four coun- propriate section of its General Report. tries had provided explanations concerning the failure to comply with the obligation to supply the first report on ratified Conven- (b) Failure to supply first reports on the application of ratified tions. They noted that the same reasons were often given and stated Conventions that it was unacceptable that the first report had not been provided by certain countries since 1992. If a country was experiencing a The Employer members stressed the importance of first reports problem, it should inform the Office as early as possible so that it and noted the emphasis placed on first reports by the Committee of could benefit from technical assistance. They expressed the hope Experts. They pointed out that only where a first report was submit- that the Office would contact these countries with a view to identi- ted on a ratified Convention could the Committee of Experts deter- fying the causes of the delay. mine whether the country was complying with its newly acquired The Employer members agreed with the Worker members’ obligations under that Convention. Submission of a first report comments that the explanations provided by the Government rep- should not present an insurmountable obstacle. The Employer resentatives had referred to difficulties of an administrative nature members cautioned member States against considering ratification that they should be able to overcome. As no government had re- as an automatic procedure and noted that careful examination and plied to the Employer members’ question, they would repeat this deliberation were necessary to determine whether a country could question next year, as they had done in previous years. They there- ratify a Convention. This examination of national legislation and fore reiterated