Kathmandu, June 3

With the International Labour Organisation’s 106th Session of the International Labour Conference approaching, Nepal has intensified lobbying for the post of deputy member in the ILO Governing Body.

The conference is scheduled to be held from June 5 to 16 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Nepal has already decided to file its candidacy for the post, commemorating its 50th year of ILO membership, said Joint Secretary Aabha Karna, also the Chief of International Relations Division at the Ministry of  Labour and Employment.

The Governing Body is composed of 56 titular members — 28 governments, 14 employers and 14 workers — and 66 deputy members that include 28 governments, 19 employers and 19 workers.

Though Nepal is an ILO member since 1966, it has yet not assumed any post on behalf of the government in the UN agency dealing with labour issues internationally.

From the private sector, various trade union leaders from Nepal have already been elected as deputy members.

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 the 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 deputy-members from this region, but three nations — Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh — have announced to their candidacies this time, avoiding the possibility of unopposed election.

In the 16th Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting of the ILO held last December in Bali of Indonesia, the then Minister for Labour 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 for the position.