KATHMANDU, June 2: As the International Labor Organisation's 106th Session of the International Labor Conference is just around the corner, Nepal has intensified preparations at the diplomatic-level to garner support for the post of the deputy member in the ILO Governing Body.
The Conference is scheduled to be held from 5 to 16 of this month in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nepal has already decided to file its candidacy for the post of ILO Governing Body's deputy member in the 106th Session.
The Governing Body is composed of 56 titular members (28 governments, 14 employers and 14 workers) and 66 deputy members (28 governments, 19 employers and 19 workers).
Though Nepal is the ILO member since 1966, it has yet not assumed any post on behalf of the government in the UN agency dealing with labor problems internationally.
On behalf of the private sector, various trade union leaders had already been elected as deputy members.
Nepal decided to file its candidacy for the post of ILO's Governing Body deputy-member on behalf of the government as Nepal is not the member on such body when it is celebrating the 50th anniversary of attainment of the ILO membership, said Joint Secretary Aabha Karna, Chief of International Relations Division, Ministry of Labor and Employment.
The ILO Governing Body is an executive body which takes decisions on 10 sectors including policy making, budget formulation, control, agenda fixation, appointment of Director-General and control over ILO central office.
Nepal, India, Iran, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka fall in the ILO central-Asia sub-regional group. Two countries from this group are selected as the deputy-member, but three nations-- Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh-- have announced to file their candidacies, avoiding the possibility of unopposed election.
Nepal is trying to garner support to get elected to the post in the backdrop of its role in the promotion of workers' rights in the formal and non-formal sectors, it already passing most of the ILO Conventions and its contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping mission, Joint Secretary Karna added.
The Cabinet meeting last November had decided to register its candidacy for the post of deputy member (from 2017-2020), directing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intensify diplomatic efforts towards that end.
In the 16th Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting of the ILO held in last December in Bali of Indonesia, the then Minister for Labor and Employment Suryaman Gurung had requested his counterparts from Qatar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Iran, and State Ministers from Oman and the United Arab Emirates to back Nepal to get elected on the post.
Nepal's permanent representative for the UN Mission in Geneva, Deepak Dhital, is learnt to have been busy in seeking favor at the diplomatic level on the eve of the Conference. RSS
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