Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Odd Roger Enoksens

International Labour Conference 1999.

Mr. President,

I am honoured to have the opportunity to address the International Labour Conference for the first time.

At the outset, I would like to congratulate Mr. Somavia and welcome him as our new Director General. The ILO needs a forward-looking leader with the ability to renew the organisation. We are convinced that Mr. Somavia has all the qualifications necessary to bring this organisation successfully into the next millennium. I give him all my best wishes for the future.

In his report to this year’s Conference, the Director-General proposes a primary goal for the ILO: to secure decent work for women and men everywhere. There are few global tasks which are more important or more challenging. It means that we shall not only strive to find work to the millions of unemployed throughout the world; they shall have decent jobs, jobs that are freely chosen and that do not jeopardise the workers safety and health. It means work that does not deprive children of their childhood. And it should also mean work that gives the workers a decent compensation for their efforts. The Norwegian government fully supports this goal.

I am especially glad to see that Mr. Somavia in his report underlines the importance of protecting workers in the informal sector. They are among the poorest in the world of work. Their lack of basic protection is a serious problem which the ILO must respond to.

The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at work was adopted last year as a promotional instrument. This Declaration was a landmark achievement in our efforts to advance respect for the rights of working people. We believe that a successful implementation of the Declaration is imperative to promote economic and social progress. Therefore we support, in order to promote the Declaration, that the ILO will launch an In Focus programme to promote policies to implement its principles in ways that are gender-sensitive and development-oriented.

Child labour is in my opinion the most pressing social and human rights issue of our time. We are outraged that millions of children are sold for prostitution and pornography, trafficked and treated like slaves or exploited in hazardous work.

Norway has, during recent years, been strongly committed to the abolition of child labour. We are therefore very pleased that the Conference this year will adopt a new Convention on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. I believe that the elimination of these most intolerable forms of child exploitation should currently be the single most important objective of the ILO and its member States.

The Conference is for the first time since 1993 discuss technical co-operation in a more comprehensive manner. The recommendations by this Conference will create the basis for the ILO’s work in this field in a new century.

At this juncture I would like to flag the importance Norway has attached to the ILO’s technical co-operation programmes. We support the Director-General in his efforts to further integrate the technical co-operation in ILO’s overall activities. It is important that the ILO clearly defines its role and focuses its efforts on fewer and more clearly defined areas to achieve greater impact.

The ILO is indeed well positioned to contribute constructively to the ongoing reform process in the UN, and hence have a better opportunity to bring forward our goal of decent work within the UN system. In this connection, we are pleased that the “High Level” segment of ECOSOC this year will address the topic “The role of employment and work in poverty education; The empowerment and advancement of Women”. We fully concur with Mr. Somavia in attaching so much importance to the gender dimension

I welcome very much the initiatives undertaken by the Director-General to renew the work on labour standards. I fully agree with him that the ILO will need to experiment with new approaches, to ensure its continued relevance in this field and reassert the usefulness of international standards. In order to raise the profile and increase the relevance of the ILO’s work on standards, a number of issues should be examined. The ground for new standards should be more thoroughly prepared and new methods of standard setting should be explored. I am also convinced that the ILO needs to be more proactive when it comes to implementation, assisting governments in giving effect to the conventions they have chosen to ratify. At times, the supervisory system should work more differentiated, focusing more on the most serious violations of ILO standards. The system would be more credible if clearer priorities are set in this respect. I hope the Director- General will be successful in this endeavour.

In conclusion, Mr. President, I would like to express my support to the new approach of strategic budgeting, presented by the Director-General. My government will follow the reform process that has just started with great interest and support. We believe that reforms are necessary to make the ILO more relevant. Institutional reform is necessary to enable the ILO, together with its partners in the UN system, to respond more effectively and in a more coordinated fashion to the global challenges of our time.

Thank You Mr. President.