ILO: Centenary Declaration sets human-centred agenda for the organisation

The 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia opened with these strong words: labour is not a commodity. It also established a series of primary objectives for the International Labour Organization – created 25 years earlier in 1919 – such as that of ensuring social justice. The 108th Session of the International Labour Conference, which came to a close on 21 June and marked the centenary of the ILO, intended to produce a declaration setting out the ILO’s roadmap for its second century of existence. The conference therefore adopted a “Centenary Declaration”, which demands a “human-centred approach to the future of work” and establishes among the ILO’s aims that of working to make sure ongoing transformations benefit all workers.