areas where non-metropolitan territories predominate. Its collaboration with the Caribbean Commission is particularly close, In papers submitted to the West Indian Conference, the opportunities of practical colla- boration between the Commission or its component territories and the I.L.Q. have been repeatedly stressed. Co-operation between the South Pacific Commission and the I.L.O. has developed to the stage when the working out of a large project of technical assistance providing for a survey of industrial development possi- bilities (including particularly the possibilities of co- operatives and handicrafts) in the area is under active consideration. Such a project has immense possibilities for the future of the many territories concerned. In frica close liaison has been established with the Com- ssion for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara and its organ in the labour field, the Inter- African Labour Institute. Observers from the I.L.O. have taken part in the last two Inter-African Labour Conferences, and it is the policy of the Office, whenever possible, to participate in C.T.C.A. meetings on all subjects within I.L.O. competence and to extend through field missions its knowledge of conditions in Africa and in other areas where non-metropolitan territories pre- dominate. The role which further technical and other meetings in these areas, under the auspices of the I.L.O., can play in bringing internationally accepted principles to bear on the solution of local and regional problems and in canalising strongly felt desires for social progress is fully recognised.
34. The Committee of Experts on Social Policy in Non-Metropolitan Territories, now being strengthened by the addition of further experts from the territories themselves, is broadening the field of its discussions and will meet in Lisbon in December 1953 to consider such subjects as productivity and housing.
35. The Governing Body may therefore feel that in the immediate future the most promising develop- ments leading to closer association of the non-metro- politan territories with the work of the I.L.O. lie rather in improving methods of practical co-operation than in changing their formal constitutional position within the I.L.O. framework. It may, therefore, wish to instruct the Director-General-
(1) to invite the interested governments to explore, in consultation with the most representative organisations of employers and workpeople concerned, and in such manner as appears to them appropriate, methods of developing in practice the powers already existing under article 3 (3) of the I.L.O. Constitution enabling States Members to appoint, in appropriate circumstances, additional advisers from non-metropolitan territories to each of their delegates;
(2) to continue the study of appropriate methods of promoting the application of Conventions and Recom- mendations in non-metropolitan territories;
(3) to keep under continuing review the possibilities of further developments in working relations with such regional organisations as the Caribbean Commission, the South Pacific Commission and the Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara, which are largely concerned with matters affecting non-metropolitan territories, and of other solutions tending towards the more effective application of I.L.O. policies in regions where non-metropolitan territories predominate.
ANNEX
Extract from a Letter Dated 28 June 1952 Addressed to the Director-General of the International Labour Office by Mr. A. Roberts, Chairman of the Workers' Group of the Governing Body
Dear Mr. Morse,
The I.L.O. and the Non-self-governing Territories With regard to this question, the I.L.O. has so far proved to be much more conservative than the United
* See above, Minutes of the Seventh Sitting, pp. 63-68, for the amendments to paragraph 35 submitted by the Workers' group.
Nations itself and some of the other specialised agencies. Representation of the non-self-governing terntories is admitted by the I.L.O. only in a roundabout way: advisers from such territories may be appointed by their metropolitan governments, in addition to others advisers. In contrast to this meagre substitute for true representa- tion, the United Nations has admitted associate men bership of dependent territories in regional commissions of the Economic and Social Council. Thus the Fifth Session of the Council of July and August 1947 agreed that certain Asian and Far Eastern countries which at Burma, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Malayan Union that time were dependent territories (Brunei and Sarawak,
and Singapore, Netherlands Indies, North Borneo), were to be admitted as associate members of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East upon application by their metropolitan countries.
Special agencies which admit dependent territories as associate members are U.N.ES.CⱭ and the World Health Organisation. U.N.E.S.C.Q. at its General Con- ference of 1951 amended its Constitution to give depen- dent territories the opportunity to acquire associate membership. It appears that the main provision about associate membership which was adopted by U.N.E.S.CO. would also, by and large, be applicable for the I.L.O. This provision reads as follows:
Territories or groups of territories which are responsible for the conduct of their internatio relations may be admitted as Associate Members by the General Conference by a two-thirds majority Members present and voting, upon application on behalf of such territory or group of territories by the Member or other authority having responsibility for their international relations.
do
If the admission to associate membership of dependent territories were made dependent upon application by their metropolitan countries and if, furthermore, as the case of ordinary membership, a two-thirds majority of the International Labour Conference would be required for admission, it can be safely assumed that only such dependent territories would be admitted to associate membership whose social and economic developement calls for their direct participation in the work of the I.L.O.
As to the rights and obligations of associate members, it may be sufficient to make the following recommenda-
tions:
1. Representation at the International Labour Conference and at other conferences and commissiKIS should be tripartite in the same way, and to the sarni degree, as for the ordinary members.
2. Special provisions should be made for the application by associate members of LLO. ConvIEREN tions and Recommendations.
3. For the rest, associate members should have the same rights and obligations as ordinary members, except for the right to vote.
As far as I.L.O. Conventions and Recommendations are concerned the Constitution of the L.L.O. is silent about the applicability of Recommendations to non-
governing territories, and confines the applicability of
Conventions in such territories to those “Conventions which have been ratified by their metropolitan countries. This restriction means a restriction of the scope international action for the improvement of the social and economic conditions of labour,
It appears, therefore, well warranted to recommend that the functions which certain non-self-governing territories can exert on the basis of article 35. Section of the I.L.O. Constitution be extended, first, to Conven- tions not yet ratified by their metropolitan countries and, second, to any Recommendations whether or not. they have been followed in their metropolitan countries.
Article 35, Section 4, stipulates that where the subject matter of a Convention which has been ratified by a metropolitan country "is within the self-governing powers of any non-metropolitan territory, the Member responsible for the international relidious of that territory
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.