Under the differing mandates on the 2 organizations, with WHO responsible for mobilization of the health sector to address occupational health and safety, and ILO sets out conventions and through its tripartite structure is responsible for mobilization of the labour sector to improve working conditions and ensure health and safety at work.

Improvement in occupational health and safety requires standards and legislation based on sound research and science. The WHO provides guidance in the form of health risk assessments, and exposure-toxicity relationships, to allow each country to review risks in the context of overall development standards and environmental conditions, so each country may then set its appropriate standard enforced by national legislation. Given the importance of the implementation of new or existing standards, WHO also provides technical assistance, training programs, practical solutions and guidance on implementation for ministries, employers and workers.

It's quiz time!

Q. In 1981 an international, legally-binding treaty on occupational safety and health was developed and adopted. How many countries ratified this treaty?

Was it 7; 37; 79; 105; or 156 ??

In case you need to check the answer, please read on. (On the other hand, if you know the answer, you may skip the rest of this section!).

A. The treaty is a Framework Convention, Convention 155, on occupational health: the International Convention on Occupational Safety and Health (adopted 1981). Only 37 countries ratified this convention.

This treaty was facilitated and coordinated by the ILO. The ILO has long used international labour conventions to create binding obligations on countries that ratify them. But changes in the labour market, technology, work organization and social conditions have continually challenged many ILO standards set out in conventions. One response to this has been to develop Framework Conventions. These conventions cover the essential and unchanging principles of each issue or subject, and the idea is that the framework convention can then be supplemented with more specific instruments that can be frequently updated.

To view this Framework Convention, go to the following ILO website, enter C155 and click display:

http://ilolex.ilo.ch:1567/english/docs/convdisp.htm

In the case of this Convention 155 on Occupational Safety and Health, it was considered that the provisions in the convention should be supplemented by consensus codes of practice specific to each sector. For examples there were subsequently:

• the Occupational Health Services Convention and Recommendation, 1985 (C161), ratified by 20 countries
• the Asbestos Convention and Recommendation, 1986 (C162), ratified by 26 countries
• the Health Protection and Medical Care (Seafarers) Convention, 1987 (C164) ratified by 10 countries,
• the Safety and Health in Construction Convention and Recommendation, 1988 (C167), ratified by 15 countries
• the Chemicals Convention and Recommendation, 1990 (C170), ratified by 9 countries
• the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention, 1993 (C174), ratified by 7 countries
• the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (C176), ratified by 17 countries.

It is vital that proposed new standards be considered in the wider context of international law, given that there are many international treaties on related issues such as health, environment and human rights. Thus a new ILO convention against the Worst Forms of Child Labour (Convention No. 182, which came into force in November 2000, and is already ratified by more than 100 countries) properly took into account a number of existing legal treaties and instruments, to ensure consistency in the provisions and requirements.

Our little quiz has tried to highlight a substantial drawback to legal treaties – the ratification rate is far to low to address the needs of workers worldwide. And even when treaties are ratified, there remains a major issue of implementation. The international community has an important role in addressing these issues.

The ILO has drawn attention to the need for strong promotional efforts to ensure ratification and implementation. These may include production of clear and effective publications, and reaching out "beyond labour ministries, employers organizations and trade unions to other groups including parliamentarians, law reform commissions, judges, business leaders, NGO’s, women’s groups, students, academics and the unemployed" (Report on 87^th Session 1999 International Labour Conference, Decent Work). The message that health and safety standards not only save lives but increase productivity must be communicated more effectively. When people realise that standards are not burdens but tools, they will be more willing to put them into practice and embed them in national development strategies. International organizations can assist governments to revise their labour legislation and improve their inspectorates.

Supervision and monitoring of the implementation of treaties can of course be linked to international cooperation programmes.

An important role for research is to support standard setting and legislation in occupational health and safety, and to identify interventions that work well in reducing exposures and safety risks in workplaces.

The majority of WHO Collaborating Centres (CCs)s in OSH are research institutions, whose work contributes to understanding risks in occupational settings and to the development of preventive interventions. Through the WHO Global Programme, the CCs make research and service commitments that benefit developing and industrializing countries.