Monitoring International Labor Standards Quality of Information: Summary of a Workshop (2003) / Chapter Skim
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5. Information and Indicators of Discrimination
5. Information and Indicators of Discrimination
Pages 37-45
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From page 37... ...
She urged the committee, as well as national governments and international organizations, to use the clefinitions of core labor standards contained in the relevant ILO conventions. Saying "Let's use the same clefinition; let's create one body of pressure, one voice," Thomas aclclecl that countries that don't want to comply with international labor standards "love the confusion of lack of definition and clarity." Referring to Lance Compa's distinction between negative and positive rights, she said that the ILO emphasizes the positive role of government .
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From page 38... ...
111, the government provides reports on discrimination, and national and international unions comment on these reports. The government feels pressure to act and provides more information to the ILO; this results in more extensive ILO comments and questions.
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From page 39... ...
For example, Thomas noted that the report Greece sent to the ILO indicated that the nation had no problem with discrimination, but the ILO replied that Greece's report to the CEDAW acknowledged eight problems of discrimination against women. Thomas said that another source that "could be very interesting for the committee" are shadow reports to CEDAW, released by the International Women's Rights Action Watch at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (various dates)
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From page 40... ...
As part of this dialogue, the ILO encourages nations to build institutional capacity, including statistical capabilities and the ability to conduct studies. Thomas noted that the ILO convention on discrimination (C 111)
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From page 41... ...
This may include agreements in union contracts, action plans, policies, guidance services on issues of discrimination, workers' education, and/or management training.
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From page 42... ...
17. Requests for and implementation of international technical assistance projects to promote equal opportunity and treatment in employment through legislative drafting assistance, law review, employment creation for minority groups and/or women, training in nondiscrimination and equal rights, etc.
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From page 43... ...
She said that sexual harassment in the workplace is not specifically encoded as a form of discrimination within the ILO definition, and sexual harassment is mentioned but not clearly defined in the UN's CEDAW. Athreya supported Thomas's approach to measuring compliance with the elimination of discrimination convention, particularly beginning with government admission of the problem as the first step toward "winning normative change." She also agreed with Thomas on the importance of comparing government reports with reports from other sources, such as academics or advocacy groups.
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From page 44... ...
First, 12 years ago, the ILO Committee of Experts looked at a case of compulsory pregnancy testing in Brazil and found the practice to be in violation of ILO Convention 111. The ILO helped Brazil set up a new compliance system to eliminate this problem, and the system has become a model for other developing nations.
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From page 45... ...
INFORMATION AND INDICATORS OF DISCRIMINATION 45 putting out a series of "global reports." In these reports, the ILO staff does evaluate and verify information from the country reports and a variety of other sources. She thinks these reports have "very high quality" and "a long shelf life." "If I were to make a list of the top five sources," Polaski said, the global reports "would be in the list of Ethel top five.''
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