London: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has readmitted Myanmar on the eve of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s address to the plenary conference of the international labour conference in Geneva on Thursday.
Since 1999 Myanmar has not received technical cooperation from the ILO except for the purpose of combating forced labour. Myanmar has not been invited to ILO meetings or activities on various labour matters since then.
The restrictions were put in place as a follow-up to a Commission of Inquiry which concluded in 1998 that the use of forced labour was widespread in the country. A number of recommendations were made for changes in legislation and practice.
In 2000, the Conference found that Myanmar was not implementing these recommendations, an ILO release said. It then enacted a number of measures, including a request to ILO Member States to review their relations with Myanmar to ensure that their actions could not be used to perpetuate the use of forced labour. Most of these measures have now also been suspended.
The Conference requested that urgent attention be given to technical cooperation priorities in Myanmar. Priorities already established are the effective and full realiasation of freedom of association as well as the elimination of forced labour.
The Government of Myanmar and the ILO have agreed on a joint strategy for eliminating forced labour.(PTI)