Date of publication: October 1, 2009
Source: ABS-CBN News
Author: Aries Rufo
» http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/10/01/09/ilo-mission-dares-govt-denounce-tu-ri... [1]
MANILA - Short of indicting the government, a high-level fact-finding mission of the International Labor Organization (ILO) asked the Arroyo administration on Thursday to categorically denounce the killings of workers and the rampant violations of trade union rights.
“A statement of the highest level of the Government instructing all government actors to make special efforts to ensure that their actions do not infringe upon the basic civil liberties of trade unionists could go a long way in reassuring the workers that have brought their complaints to the ILO,” a statement from the high-level mission said.
Mission member Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, director of the ILO international labor standards department, said this would send the message that the government “does not condone” human rights violations and the killings of workers.
She added “it will help clarify allegations of the impunity” of abductions, harassments and extra-judicial killings of laborers, which the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement) brought to the attention of the ILO two years ago.
The mission arrived September 22 and concluded its task Thursday.
Facts gathered for ILO higher bodies
Members of the mission interviewed families and relatives of labor leaders killed allegedly by the military. They also went to the economic export zones to look into alleged violations of labor standards and laws, and inquired into the labor problem in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. Government officials and legislators were also interviewed.
Other members of the ILO mission are Karen Curtis, deputy director-general of the ILO International Labor Standards department, and TIm de Meyer, International Labor Standards Specialists of the ILO sub-regional office for East Asia.
The ILO, the only tripartite body of the United Nations composed of government, workers and employers, earlier requested the Arroyo government to accept the high-level mission to probe the alleged labor rights violations.
The government initially rejected the request. But in this year’s International Labor Conference, the government finally relented.
Doumbia-Henry said the team was able to gather facts and information, and will submit its report to the ILO supervisory bodies on Freedom of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organize Convention to make the final assessment.
The ILO’s Committee on Experts, which is composed of 20 eminent jurists who assess a country’s application of labor standards, will come up with its final report in February, while the Committee on Freedom on Association will give its report in March.
Contradictory statements
Expectedly, during the inquiry, the ILO mission said it was “confronted with contradictory statements concerning violence against trade unionists and the sufficiency of the efforts made by the government to ensure that workers may exercise their trade union rights in a climate free from fear.”
The government, in particular, the military, has maintained that those who were killed were insurgents using labor as a front. Militant labor groups said the killings were orchestrated to weaken the labor movement.
In a press conference, the ILO team dodged specific questions about its initial impressions on the general labor situation in the country. However, it found gaps and proposed some recommendations, among them:
1) A coordinated training of the national police and the armed forces on freedom of association and its linkages to civil liberties
2) Training of judges and lawyers on international labor standards and their use in the judiciary
3) Continuing education for the labor department and other government agencies on international labor standards
4) The promotion of social dialogue.
Doumbia-Henry said it was an encouraging sign that the military is open to training on labor rights and civil liberties, although she refused to say whether this is an implicit admission that the armed forces were behind the killings of labor leaders.
The KMU said almost 100 workers and labor leaders have been summarily executed in the past four years, as part of the government's anti-insurgency campaign. Aside from workers, human rights activists were also casualties of the military drive.
Beyond its probe, the ILO team also recommended the creation of an independent tripartite monitoring to validate allegations of violations. The creation of the body would indicate “a commitment to comprehensive and coherent action and an inclusive participatory approach to taking meaningful steps at the national level.”