ILO-OHCHR event on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedom of Association: The double helix of civic space and labour rights

Organised by the ILO and the OHCHR

Aim of the meeting

2023 marks the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the ILO Protection of the Right to Organise Convention No. 87. These anniversaries provide an important opportunity to promote the centrality of free, inclusive, and democratic civic space to implementing human rights, including labour rights.

Freedom of association, along with freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, are key to civic space. Freedom of association and collective bargaining in particular are central to addressing current trust deficits in the labour domain and beyond.

With a view to inspiring more decisive action to preserve and expand both, human and labour rights, the event will celebrate the contributions of the ILO’s tripartite structure and of each of its constituencies to the promotion of Freedom of Association and related civil liberties for the protection of civic space – a key dimension of 75^th anniversaries of the UDHR and ILO Convention 87 – while underscoring the pivotal role of Freedom of Association as the centrepiece of ILO’s constitutional mandate.

IOE Role

Mr Roberto Suárez Santos, IOE Secretary-General, will represent the employers and will be participating as a panellist.