Table of ratifications of basic conventions The ILO defines CSR as a way for companies to take into account the impact of their activities on society and to reaffirm their principles and values both in their own internal methods and procedures and in their interactions with other actors. The growing consumer interest in the ethical dimension of products and the working conditions in which they are manufactured has led multinational companies to adopt voluntary codes of conduct that regulate working conditions in their production facilities and supply chains. The majority of the top 500 companies in the United States and the United Kingdom have adopted some sort of code of conduct, many of which refer to principles derived from ILO standards. Although these codes do not replace binding international instruments, they play an important role in disseminating the principles contained in international labour standards. The most important means of action at the ILO is the definition of international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations. Conventions are international treaties and instruments that create legally binding obligations for countries that ratify them. The recommendations are non-binding and contain guidelines that guide national policies and measures. India`s approach to international labour standards has always been positive. ILO instruments have provided guidelines and a useful framework for the development of legislative and administrative measures to protect and promote the interests of workers. In this regard, the influence of ILO Conventions as a reference standard for labour law and practice in India and not as a legally binding standard has been considerable.
Ratification of a convention imposes legally binding obligations on the country concerned, and that is why India has acted cautiously in ratifying the conventions. In India, it has always been customary for us to ratify a Convention when we are fully convinced that our laws and practices are in conformity with the relevant ILO Convention. It is now assumed that a better course of action is to proceed with the gradual implementation of the standards and to consider formal ratification at a later stage when this becomes possible. So far, we have ratified 41 ILO Conventions, which is much better than in many other countries. Although India may not be in a position to ratify a convention for specific reasons, India has generally voted in favour of the conventions to reserve its position with regard to its future ratification. An increasing number of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements as well as regional economic integration agreements contain social and labour law provisions relating to labour rights. In fact, the number of free trade agreements with labour provisions has increased significantly over the past two decades: 70 trade agreements contained labour provisions in 2016, compared to 58 in 2013, 21 in 2005 and four in 1995. (Note 1) Free trade agreements increasingly refer in their labour clauses to ILO instruments, in particular the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998) and, in the case of recent European Union agreements, to ILO conventions. Since 2013, 80% of the agreements that have entered into force contain such clauses, starting with agreements involving the European Union, the United States and Canada. However, such clauses appeared very early. In the context of the European Union, for example, the special incentive scheme for sustainable development and good governance (Generalised System of Preferences/GSP+) offers additional benefits to countries implementing certain international human and labour rights standards.
Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992 and 1994, supplemented by the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC) (this agreement was fully renegotiated in October 2018), the United States has signed several free trade agreements with countries such as Chile, Jordan, the Republic of Korea, Morocco, Singapore and Central American countries. In these agreements, the signatory States reaffirm their commitment to the ILO and in particular to respect for and promotion of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. More recently, the Japan-European Union Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2017, refers to the Decent Work Agenda and the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008) as binding standards for the parties, which should also seek to ratify the ILO`s eight core Conventions. The agreement also contains clauses on corporate social responsibility with references to the Multinational Enterprise Declaration. International labour standards are legal instruments developed by ILO members (governments, employers and workers) that set out fundamental principles and rights at work. These are either conventions (or protocols), which are legally binding international treaties that can be ratified by Member States, or recommendations that serve as non-binding guidelines. In many cases, a Convention sets out the basic principles to be applied by the countries that have ratified it, while a Recommendation to that effect complements the Convention by providing more detailed guidelines for its application. Recommendations may also be autonomous, i.e. not linked to an agreement.
ILO member States are required to submit any Convention or Protocol adopted by the International Labour Conference to their competent national authority for adoption of legislation or other relevant measures, including ratification. An adopted convention or protocol normally enters into force 12 months after its ratification by two Member States. Ratification is a formal procedure by which a State accepts the Convention or Protocol as a legally binding instrument. Once a country has ratified a Convention or Protocol, it is subject to the ILO`s regular monitoring system, which is responsible for the implementation of the instrument. .