TNAG-1520-FCO40-2081-Employment-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 67

INTRODUCTION

The International Labour Conference has in the past two years adopted two complementary international labour Recommenda- tions laying down minimum standards of social policy in depen- dent territories. The first was voted on 12 May 1944 by the 26th Session of the Conference in Philadelphia. The second was voted on 5 November 1945 by the 27th Session of the Conference in Paris.:

Members of the International Labour Organisation are under a treaty obligation to bring these Conference decisions "before the authority or authorities within whose competence the matter lies, for the enactment of legislation or other action" (Article 19(5) of the Constitution). The Recommendations themselves provide that each Member of the Organisation, which approves them, shall communicate "particulars of the action taken to make effective the minimum standards" indicated in them and thereafter shall "report to the International Labour Office. from time to time, as requested by the Governing Body", concerning action taken to give effect to them. The Philadelphia and Paris Recommendations are thus designed to lead first to a formal infication by the Govern- ments of their acceptance of internationally accepted standards of social policy for application to depender: territories, and thence to a system of mutual co-operation in international accountability on the results achieved.

However, between May 1944 and November 1945 the war had come to an end both in Europe and the East; the United Nations Charter had been signed at San Francisco and widely ratified; progress had been made in defining responsibilities for the countries which the International Labour Organisation has termed dependent territories; and, in general, courageous attempts of a new type had become essential in order to seek the association of dependent territories in world advancement as an alternative to endemic distrust and epidemic disorder.

In this changed atmosphere, with its possibilities of good and evil, the International Labour Conference at Paris was unable to consider its immediate work in regard to dependent territories

1 Social Policy in Dependent Territories Recommendation, 1944, hereafter to be referred to as the Philadelphia Recommendati:n.

* Social Policy in Dependent Territories (Suppimentary Provisions) Recom- mendation, 1945, hereafter to be referred to as the Paris Recommendation.