The system of control of The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the interpretation on the ILO Conventions: A legal approach to an institutional crisis

Abstract

An institutional crisis has been opened in the ILO as a result of the decision of the employer members to turn their disagreement with the interpretation given by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) of Convention No. 87 on freedom of Association and protection of the Right to Organise (1948) into a capital problem for the credibility of the control system of the OIT. A legal analysis of the arguments of the employers and of the rest of other actors of the debate (worker members and CEACR) has been made to offer a realistic approach to the main legal issues at stake: the extent of the interpretative powers of the CEACR and if the interpretation given by the CEACR follows the rules of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.