Page 296 - วารสารกฎหมาย ศาลอุทธรณ์คดีชํานัญพิเศษ

วารสารกฎหมาย ศาลอุทธรณ์คดีชำานัญพิเศษ

The 1998 Declaration on the Fundamental Rights at Work was instrumental in increasing
the number of ratifications of eight fundamental Conventions to some extent, but it still

faces an uphill task, and Conventions of other categories must also be vigorously
promoted. It is not only the number of ratifications, but also the quality of the numbers:

i.e., in the case of Migrant Worker Conventions, for instance, we see that worker-sending
States tend to ratify these more than worker-receiving States. This fact discounts the
effectiveness of the Conventions, which are basically meant to protect workers in

labour-receiving countries.

Under these circumstances, what is needed is to look for alternative means to
ensure the observance of ILS. This paper tries to shed light on the significance of “soft”
means to achieve the goal, highlighting the role of corporate social responsibility, in

particular.

1. “Soft Means” in the Application of ILS

A “soft” or non-traditional means, by which norms can be effectively applied,
is not unknown to the ILO. As a matter of fact, the whole procedure relating to the

freedom of association is a good example. Unlike the regular supervision undertaken
under Articles 22, 24 and 26 of the Constitution, the freedom of association procedure

is not based on any constitutional provision, nor a Convention. The procedure has been
developed by an accumulation of factual practices, which in its origin started with the
adoption of a decision at the United Nations Economic Social Council in 1950 to set

up a Fact-finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association in co-
operation with the ILO. It was a non-binding decision and only operational when the
2
target country accepted its establishment. Seeing this to happen only infrequently, the
ILO then expanded its scope of activities by entrusting the ILO Governing Body’s
Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA), initially meant to decide on the

receivability of complaints for the Fact-finding and Conciliation Commission, to enter
into the substance of a complaints and come up with some solutions, all in a non-binding

2 ECOSOC Res.277(X), 17 February 1950.

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