History, mandate, principal purposes: The International Labour Organization was created in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles, to state that social justice is an indispensable condition for a universal and lasting peace. The ILO Constitution was drafted by the Labour Commission, established by the Paris Peace Conference and composed by the representatives of 9 Countries: Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Being a founding Member, Italy shared from the inception the ILO fundamental goals, such as the international recognition of human and labour rights, the promotion of social justice and of the opportunity for all women and men to decent and productive jobs, in conditions of freedom, equality, security and dignity.
ILO is the only international tripartite organization, and brings together in its executive bodies the representatives of governments of 187 States, trade unions and business organizations. ILO headquarters are based in Geneva, with about forty local Offices worldwide.
In 2019 the Organization celebrated its 100th anniversary. Many activities took place in Italy and in Geneva, culminating with the participation of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella to the International Labour Conference (ILC) on 10th June. Another important celebration took place in Rome on 31st May, with the participation of the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The ILC adopted the ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, that promotes a human-centered future of work. The ILC also adopted a new Convention (190) to combat violence and harassment in the workplace.
Participation of Italy to the ILO. Italy plays a leading role in the Organization. Being a major industrialized country, it is one of the 10 permanent members of the Governing Body, together with Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States of America. Italy has the third largest number of ratified conventions (113 ratifications) after France and Spain. Italy is also one of the main contributors to the Organization: it ranks 8th for the contribution to the ILO ordinary budget in 2019, with more than 14 million Swiss Francs, and takes part, through voluntary funding, in a number of development cooperation activities promoted by the Organization. The city of Turin hosts the ILO International Training Centre, where training activities for the constituencies of ILO Members States are carried out. Founded in 1964 by the ILO and the Italian Government, The Centre offers learning, knowledge-sharing, and institutional capacity-building programs for governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations, and development partners, with the aim to meet SDG 8 of the UN Agenda 2030, which promotes full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Director General: On 25 March 2022, Gilbert F. Houngbo from Togo was elected new Director General of the ILO. First African to hold the post, he will be the 11th Director-General of the ILO and assumed the office on 1 October 2022 for a five-years term, replacing the previous Director General, British national Guy Ryder, in charge since 2012.
Web Site: www.ilo.org
Working at the ILO: For information on career opportunities at the ILO, please visit the web site of the Organization https://jobs.ilo.org