CECILIA BRIGHI
ITALIAN WORKER REPRESENTATIVE
BURMA SPECIAL SITTING
100TH ILO CONFERENCE
COMMITTEE ON APPLICATION OF STANDARDS
Geneva 4.6.2011
Chair,
One of the recommendations of the Commission of Enquiry is to ensure that the government makes the necessary budget allocations so that workers are freely contracted and adequately remunerated.
The ILO Office should work on this crucial recommendation that can be fulfilled, if there is the political will by the Burmese government to:
a) avoiding distraction of FDI revenues.
b) Resolving the crucial problem of tax extortion, lack of accountability, corruption, as well as the illicit capital export, denounced by the UNDP, that classifies Burma, among the LDC, as the 10th exporter of illicit capital for 8.5 billion $.
c) shifting public resources from the defence sector to public works.
In this regard, we denounce programs to develop Scud type missiles, the building of hundreds military tunnels, of a nuclear power plant, and the signing of contacts to import 62 armoured helicopters from Russia and weapons of mass disruption from North Korea.
In November 2010, even the UN security Council, denounced the shipments of banned nuclear technology and missiles from North Korea to Burma.
The recently confirmed EU restrictive measures toward Burma should be accompanied by adequate monitoring procedures. In my country, we verified and denounced in May the continuous import of teak from Burma. On May, during the first EU-ASEAN Business Summit, EU business representatives explored opportunities to boost bilateral trade and investments in sanctioned sectors.
In April two dozen of European Companies including an Austrian luxury crystal and jewellery one and some defence firms visited Burma on a business trip, headed by the Austrian ambassador to Thailand and Burma.
A December 2010 report denounced an European Pension fund investment to be in violation of its Ethical Guidelines, in 15 oil and gas companies from eight countries operating in Burma, accused of complicity in abuses such as forced labor, killings, and land confiscation in connection to gas and oil transport pipelines.
We call on EU and on other governments and companies:
– to implement the new UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, based on three pillars: 1) the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business enterprises; 2)The corporate responsibility to respect human rights, trough due diligence; 3) greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial.
– we call on companies, investing in Burma, to comply with the updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and with the Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas,.
– we call on those countries that adopted economic sanctions, that no relaxation of sanctions should be adopted, until there is a genuine improvement in human rights and progress towards democratic change and to adopt adequate monitoring and supervisory mechanisms,
We call on the ILO Director General to renewed action for a consistent implementation of the 2000 ILO resolution.
Finally since forced labour is still rampant and no substantial institutional and practical steps have been taken, there is still the need for the ILO to implement the decision to prepare to prepare the possible question to request for of an advisory opinion to the International Court of Justice on the violation of Convention 29.