TNAG-1520-FCO40-2081-Employment-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 64

Document No. 1

Extract from Report IV(1) of the 29th Session of the International Labour Conference, 1946

CHAPTER IV

THE APPLICATION OF GENERAL LABOUR CONVENTIONS

The Philadelphia and Paris Recommendations contain a number of provisions directly based on the provisions of existing interna- tional labour Conventions designed for general application. They also ccatain provisions which do rot figure in such Conventions but are suggested by their terms. The Constitution of the Inter- national Labour Organisation imposes certain obligations on Member States as regards the application of all Conventions_to non-self-governing territories. One question before the Conference will therefore be whether or not acother Convention is required to secure the application to such territories of the necessary labour safeguards contained in the Recommendations and based on existing general Conventions.

The obligations under the Constitution for the application of Conventions to non-self-governing territories are set forth in Article 35 as follows:

1. The Members engage to apply conventions which they have ratified in accordance with the provisions of this Part of the present Treaty to their colonies, protectcrates and possessions which are not fully self-governing:

(1) Except where owing to the local conditions the convention is inap-

plicable, or

(2) Subject to such modiɔ̃cations as may be necessary to adapt the con-

vention to local conditions.

2. And each of the Members shall notify to the International Labour Ofce the action taken in respect of each of its colonies, protectorates and possessions which are not fully self-goveraing.

These are positive obligations. The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions has commented as follows on the practical results achieved:

The action taken for the application of Conventions to colonial and similar territories is one of the most interesting developments of international labour legislation with which the Committee has to deal. Although legislative and administrative measures already taken on the basis of the Conventions are in many cases mainly of precautionary value at the present early stage of colonial