ILO
lifts restrictions on Myanmar
The
International Labour Organization has lifted its restrictions on the full
participation of Myanmar in its activities and decided to review the progress
on the elimination of forced labour in the country next year.
News
item | 13 June 2012
GENEVA
(ILO News) – The decision, taken by the International Labour Conference during
its annual meeting in Geneva, comes a day before Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Member of Parliament
in Myanmar, addresses the Conference’s plenary on Thursday 14 June.
Since
1999, by a decision of the Conference, Myanmar has not received technical
cooperation from the ILO except for the purpose of combating forced labour.
Myanmar has not been invited to ILO meetings or activities on various labour
matters.
The
restrictions were put in place as a follow-up to a Commission of Inquiry which
concluded in 1998 that the use of forced labour was widespread in the country.
A number of recommendations were made for changes in legislation and practice.
In
2000, the Conference found that Myanmar was not implementing these
recommendations. It then enacted a number of measures, including a request to
ILO Member States to review their relations with Myanmar to ensure that their
actions could not be used to perpetuate the use of forced labour. Most of these
measures have now also been suspended.
The
Conference requested that urgent attention be given to technical cooperation
priorities in Myanmar. Priorities already established are the effective and
full realization of freedom of association as well as the elimination of forced
labour.
The
Government of Myanmar and the ILO have agreed on a joint strategy for
eliminating forced labour. The Government acknowledges the need for immediate
action on this strategy with a view of implementing it before the declared
target date of 2015.
