Qatar’s presidency of the International Labour Conference raises eyebrows
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is unhappy at the prospect of Qatar chairing the International Labour Conference (ILC). Representing more than 200 million workers worldwide, the ITUC has sent a strongly worded letter to the organization’s D-G, Gilbert Houngbo, expressing its dismay at having Qatar’s Minister of Labour, Ali bin Saeed bin Samikh Al Marri, presiding the ILO’s International Labour Conference—which will open here on June 5. “It undermines the credibility of the ILO,” the ITUC’s acting general secretary Luc Triangle told The Geneva Observer.
The controversy is largely fueled by the ongoing Belgian investigation into Qatar’s alleged bribery of EU lawmakers, which has also dragged in the ITUC’s former leadership.
Qatar and the ILO have had a technical agreement in place since 2018, prompted by a 2014 ITUC complaint to the labour body. As recently as last October, the organization vouched for the country’s progress in implementing labour and human rights reforms.
While Luc Triangle admitted to The G|O that progress had been made in Qatar, he said many challenges remain. In an emailed statement, the ITUC insisted that “Qatar’s labour reforms need to be fully implemented and further developed. The prospect of Qatar chairing the International Labour Conference highlights the absolute need for Qatar, and every other country, to respect the rights of workers to unionise and bargain collectively. And like every country attending the ILC, Qatar’s delegation should be tripartite. That is, comprised of government, worker and employer representatives.”
There is little, however, that Director-General Houngbo can do, say several informed ILO watchers we talked to—even though one source told me that he would like the Europeans, at least, to press the matter.
In a written statement, the ILO told The G|O that “According to the information available at this stage, the Government Group is expected to nominate the Qatar Minister of Labour, Ali bin Saeed bin Samikh Al Marri, for the presidency of the International Labour Conference. […] The International Labour Office, i.e. the Organization’s Secretariat, is not involved in any manner in the process for the election of the President.”
According to the organization’s rules, the presidency of the annual Labour Conference rotates between regions, with each region free to choose its representative country for what is an entirely honorific job. Employers and workers groups in the ILO tripartite system slot in from time to time. This year happens to be the turn of the Arab States.
“The system runs smoothly, so today’s situation is simply a case of unfortunate timing,” one source told The G|O. But for that same source, the story of the ILO’s relationship with Qatar also makes a valuable study of how labour rights can be promoted by the ILO in the context of geopolitical realities. The key, they say, “is probably through genuine cooperation between the ILO and governments that see their own rationale for enlarging workers’ rights. With the World Cup gone and the world sucking up Qatari gas, the pressure to reform might well be off.”
-PHM