Monitoring International Labor Standards: Quality of Information, Summary of a Workshop (2003)

Summary: The Committee on Monitoring International Labor Standards (CMILS) is charged with assembling data on international labor standards and compliance and organizing these data into an easily accessible, web-based format for use by the Department of Labor. As one step in this process, the committee held a workshop in July 2002 to assess the quality of information and measures of progress towards compliance with international labor standards. This document summarizes the workshop. Reflecting the workshop agenda, this report focuses primarily on the availability and quality of information to measure compliance with four core international labor standards that were identified in 1998 by the International Labor Organization (ILO). The 1998 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work called on the member nations of the ILO to promote the following four core principles: (1) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; (2) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; (3) the effective abolition of child labor; and (4) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.