HOW TO WORK WITH THE ILO be in agreement over better conditions of work for home-based workers. The INDISCO project and the Project to Promote Convention No. 169 (see ch. IV) also work closely with minority and indigenous organizations and concerned NGOs. These are important indications of the ILO’s more open attitude towards NGOs. 2. Working with the ILO ere are points to keep in mind when undertaking work at the ILO: H • If the government has not ratified the Convention which is directly relevant, then check to see if you can submit the same information under another Convention which it has ratified. – In some cases, governments can be called upon to make reports on Conventions that they have not ratified. See the sections on General Surveys (see ch. V) and Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (see ch. III), as well as Complaints Procedures (in ch. VI) for details on when and how these procedures operate. 2.3 Research 2.1 Subject matter • Verify that the issue you wish to raise falls within the ILO’s mandate. To do this you have to identify the ILO Convention which covers your area of interest: – You can consult the full list of ILO Conventions and texts on the ILO’s website (available in various languages including English, French and Spanish) at www.ilo.org73 or you can obtain it from the ILO. – This is particularly important if you want to make full use of the ILO’s supervisory system, for example for an Article 24 representation, as references have to be made to the specific Articles of the relevant Convention and must show how they are not being observed. • Do remember that more than one ILO Convention may be relevant. – For example, if your organization is concerned about discriminatory employment practices against indigenous groups in a particular country, then Convention No. 100 on Equal Remuneration, Convention No. 111 on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), and Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples may all be relevant. – If you need further information on this issue, you can contact the nearest office of the ILO for clarification. (Contact ilo@ilo.org for a list of regional offices.) 2.2 Ratification • Once you have established how your issue fits into the ILO’s structure of Conventions you need to check whether the country you are working on has ratified the Conventions you are interested in. – You can do this by looking at a book published by the ILO which lists all the countries which have ratified each Convention – List of Ratifications by Convention and by Country, Report III (Part 2) – which is available from ILO offices or through the internet at the ILOLEX database on the ILO website.74 42 • Next, you have to ensure that you have all the latest information. This should include the ILO’s involvement to date, as well as any comments made by the government or any trade union and employers’ organizations in relation to the issue. There are a number of ILO reports that need to be reviewed, the most important of which are: • The most recent report of the Committee of Experts (Report III, Part 1A), which can be obtained from the ILO or accessed from their website.75 This covers the Committee’s findings by Convention and by country, and is published in March each year. This is a very useful report. It also has a number of indexes, including one which details trade union or employer comments on countries and Conventions. These may be useful in identifying potential partners to work with.76 – Also check whether the country in question has been the subject of a representation, a complaint or special procedures concerning freedom of association. This can also be found in the Committee of Experts’ Annual Report (Part One, General Report), under ‘Constitutional and other procedures’. • The country specific findings of the latest report of the Standards Committee – see Part Two of its report entitled Observations and information concerning particular countries:77 – Check if the country and Convention you are interested in have been examined and, if so, what conclusions were reached. • Where there is a history of ILO involvement with a particular issue, your research will tell you what the ILO has said and done to date78 and also what the government’s position is in relation to its compliance with the Convention in question: – Once you have this information, you can ensure that your submission focuses on the issues under debate and provides evidence of how the government is failing to comply with its obligations under the relevant Convention. THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION: A HANDBOOK FOR MINORITIES AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES