International Labour Conference

GENEVA (ILO News) -

In an address delivered today to the International Labour Conference in Geneva, the President of the Swiss Confederation, Madam Ruth Dreifuss, called upon the International Labour Organization (ILO) to resume its pioneering role and to redefine its place in the international community so as to be better prepared to meet the social challenges of globalization.

Madam Dreifuss also took this opportunity to announce that Switzerland would soon deposit instruments of ratification for the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), which she said "must remain the point of reference for the future" establishing the minimum age of child labour. She also called for the ratification and universal application of the new Convention on the most extreme forms of child labour, which is due to be adopted at the current session of the Conference.

Speaking to the delegates of the 174 ILO member States during a special sitting of the 87 th Session of the Conference, Madam Dreifuss recalled that social development in Switzerland had historically been closely linked to the ILO. She stated "the fact that maternity protection, which in 1919 was the subject of one of the first ILO Conventions is now once again on the agenda just as Switzerland is hoping to enact legislation in this area shows the interdependence of national and international developments".

One year after the establishment of the ILO in 1919, its secretariat, the International Labour Office, was set up in Geneva. "Switzerland", said Madam Dreifuss, "has always been very proud of its presence here within our borders, and this prestigious institution, after the International Committee of the Red Cross, has become a beacon of human rights and social justice in Geneva".

"The results achieved since 1919 have endowed the ILO with an undisputed international legitimacy for establishing the basic international conditions conducive to equitable economic and social relations within and between countries". Those instruments, she said, "remain valid today, and still contribute to peace".