(v) Meetings
- This includes the organisation and conduct of maritime meetings, such as those mentioned under (i) above, including seminars, symposia and courses and the arrangement of follow-up meetings to act on the conclusions reached.
(vi) Service and support of technical cooperation projects
- The ILO seeks to maintain and strengthen its contacts with bilateral agencies, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and national bodies dealing with technical assistance in the maritime sector.
ILO activities in the shipping industry
As far back as 1919, it has been the practice that special maritime sessions of the International Labour Conference should be convened to deal with the seafarers' working and living conditions. A bipartite commission - the Joint Maritime Commission advises the Governing Body on maritime questions, especially on the selection of items to be submitted to the maritime sessions of the Conference, and also for initial discussions of those problems. The Joint Maritime Commission is composed of twenty shipowners' members and twenty seafarers' members, plus a representative from the Employers' and Workers' groups of the ILO Governing Body. The Chairman is the Chairman of the Governing Body. The Commission has held twenty eight sessions, the last in October 1996. The next session will be held in January 2001.
After having been selected and preliminarily discussed by the Joint Maritime Commission, the recommendations connected with the conditions of seafarers are submitted to the Governing Body which decides the agenda for a tripartite technical Meeting and finally for the Maritime Session of the Conference. The latter is usually held at intervals of eight to twelve years and adopts international instruments which are applicable specifically to seafarers. Since 1920, nine sessions of the International Labour Conference, dealing exclusively with merchant seafarers, have adopted more than 60 instruments. The last Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference was held in October 1996.
The standard-setting process
In ILO terminology, standards are formulated in Conventions and Recommendations. Conventions when ratified involve binding international commitments; Recommendations do not create any international obligations but are designed to provide guidance to governments in formulating their policies. The obligation accepted by a State when it ratifies an international labour Convention is to make the provisions of the Convention effective through law and practice.
In the shipping sector the first step for the Office is to prepare reports on laws and practices relating to the subjects on the agenda of the Joint Maritime Commission based on a questionnaire sent out by the ILO. On the basis of government replies, the Office prepares a comprehensive report, including a list of points for discussion or proposed conclusions. If the Governing Body accepts the recommendations of the Commission, a technical report, with updates information on law and practice on the subjects selected, is prepared by the Office and discussed either by a Preparatory Technical Maritime Conference or by a tripartite meeting with the same functions and, finally, by the Maritime or the General Session of the Conference. If the draft text of an instrument receives two-thirds of the votes cast at the Conference, it is formally adopted as an ILO Convention or Recommendation as decided by the Conference. The adoption of standards is normally undertaken only when, in the light of experience at the national level, the subject appears sufficiently ripe to secure the requisite measure of agreement.
