International Labor Conference

United Nations Palais des Nations

United Nations Palais des Nations. Credit: United Nations.

The annual International Labour Conference (ILC) is the gathering by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILC is globally the most important labor-related conference and the highest decision-making body of the ILO. The ILC is setting the general policy, work program, and even budget or the ILO. The conference is attended by national delegations from 187 ILO member states as well as select International Nonprofit Organizations. The conference includes the plenary session at the Palais des Nations as well as technical committees delegates may request to attend.

Young European Leadership was granted observer status to the 105th ILC which took place in Geneva from May 30 to June 11. The ILC’s theme was Building a future with decent work. It covered world of work topics such as

  • Decent work for peace, security and disaster resilience
  • Social Justice for a Fair Globalization
  • Global supply chains
  • The Code of the Maritime Labour Convention

YEL Dutch Delegation Commission

YEL meeting representatives of the Dutch Delegation holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union as well as a representative from the European Commission.

At the 105th ILC YEL was represented by Tillmann Heidelk. During the conference he mainly joined the negotiations on decent work for peace, security and disaster resilience. Witnessing the negotiations between the ILO member states as well as the representatives of the worker and employers organizations provided deep insights into the different perspectives from around the globe on a given topic. In addition, meeting with negotiation-representatives as well as ILO Staff helped to obtain a detailed understanding of the functioning of the ILO and the role of the European Union / the Council of the European Union throughout the negotiation process.

Tillmann is the Co-founder and President of Young European Leadership. He is also pursuing his PhD in labor economics at the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics, and has worked for over three years at the World Bank. For more information about the 105th ILC visit ilo.org/ilc/ILCSessions/105. For more information about YEL’s global delegations program visit younglead.eu/activities.