Aliaksandr Yarashuk: ‘ILO Notes Absence of Progress in Situation in Belarus’
Source: www.charter97.org
The leader of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions Aliaksandr Yarashuk has said to the Charter’97 press-center on the phone from Geneva that today at the session of the ILO (International Labor Organization) Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, a group of workers and a group of employers supported Belarus’ entering a special paragraph of the Report of the International Labor Conference. It means that participants of the session had come to a conclusion that Belarusian government hadn’t made any significant steps on fulfillment of the ILO recommendations and hadn’t corrected violations of trade unions rights in Belarus. ‘The Committee stated absence of progress in fulfillment of the ILO recommendations. It has been stated also that in the future Belarus should be treated in all earnestness,’ Aliaksandr Yarashuk said.
Over the recent 5 years Belarus has been included to the special paragraph of the ILO three times. The reason was violations of trade unions’ rights. In 2004 the ILO called a commission of investigation, which had happened only 4 times over 85 years of the organization’s existence. Including to the special paragraph influences reputation of a country and is a signal to governments of countries-members of the ILO to reconsider relations with Belarus. Besides, the ILO recommendations are listened to by such influential international organizations as the UN, the UN Security Council, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. In case the decision to include Belarus into the special paragraph would be taken, it is hard to hope that trade preferences would be preserved for Belarus, www.praca-by.info reports.
Violations of human rights of trade unions and workers were the grounds for expelling Belarus from the Generalized System of Preferences. This decision is to come into effect on 21 July. Under the decision Belarus is to lose about 300 mln Euro annually.
