Founded after World War I in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) was the first specialized agency of the United Nations. It negotiates and formulates labour standards to make sure that people all over the world can work under decent conditions.
Apart from government representatives, trade unions and employers’ associations, international organizations of civil society can attend the annual sessions of the International Labour Conference in Geneva.
KOLPING INTERNATIONAL has been part of this event every year, contributing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to those international discussions. This year KOLPING INTERNATIONAL congratulated ILO on its 100th anniversary.
Dr. Markus Demele, General Secretary of KOLPING INTERNATIONAL, had a chance to speak at the very place where some days earlier German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out in favour of a strong ILO. The formulation of internationally valid labour standards has certainly been a success in the past 100 years – “however, the next 100 years must focus on the implementation of those standards“, Markus Demele said to the delegates.
Here is the link for a video of the speech: http://bit.ly/ilo_rede_markusdemele
