International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the first and oldest specialised agencies of the UN. The ILO has 187 member states: 186 out of 193 UN member states plus the Cook Islands. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with around 40 field offices around the world, and employs some 3,381 staff across 107 nations, of whom 1,698 work in technical cooperation programmes and projects.
ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland
International Labour Organization flag
Samuel Gompers (right) with Albert Thomas, 1918
Greenwood, Ernest H. (of the United States – Deputy secretary general of the conference) / Secretary General: Harold B. Butler (Great Britain) / Deputy Secretaries General: Ernest H. Greenwood (United States) / Guido Pardo (Italy) /Legal Adviser: Manley 0. Hudson (United States) / with staff of the first International Labour Conference, in Washington, D.C., in 1919, in front of the Pan American Union Building
International labour law is the body of rules spanning public and private international law which concern the rights and duties of employees, employers, trade unions and governments in regulating Work and the workplace. The International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization have been the main international bodies involved in reforming labour markets. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have indirectly driven changes in labour policy by demanding structural adjustment conditions for receiving loans or grants. Issues regarding Conflict of laws arise, determined by national courts, when people work in more than one country, and supra-national bodies, particularly in the law of the European Union, have a growing body of rules regarding labour rights.
Peace Palace, the headquarters for the International Court of Justice
Young diamond miners in Sierra Leone
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911