International Labour Office 1 2 nd African Decent Work Symposium “Promoting Jobs, Protecting People” Yaounde, 6 –8 October nd African Decent Work Symposium “Promoting Jobs, Protecting People” Yaounde, 6 –8 October 2010 Response II: Building a Social Protection Floor Panel 2: The Right to social security and the relevance of ILO instruments The ILO Global Campaign to extend Social Security to all Ursula Kulke, Coordinator for Standards and Legal Services, Social Security Department, International Labour Office, Geneva

International Labour Office 2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948): - Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security - Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family  Through the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Member States have recognized social security as a basic human right International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(1966): - Article 9: The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to social security, including social insurance  Through ratification, accession or succession 160 UN Member States have committed themselves to work towards social security for everyone.  While the basic human right to social security was adopted as such in 1948 by the UN, the ILO, as the UN agency specifically charged with setting international labour standards, had been given the primary responsibility since its creation in the realization of that right Social Security – A basic human right

International Labour Office 3 The ILO Mandate in the field of social security The ILO Mandate in the field of social security  The Preamble to the ILO Constitution mandated the ILO: …to improve conditions of labour, inter alia, through the «prevention of unemployment, …the protection of the worker against sickness, disease, and injury arising out of his employment, the protection of children, young persons and women, provision for old-age and injury »  The ILO’s Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) charged the ILO with “to further among the nations of the world programmes which will achieve the objectives…. the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care”  This mandate was confirmed by ILO’s constituents at the General Discussion at the ILC in 2001 and at the ILC in 2008 by the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization

International Labour Office 4 Realizing ILO’s Mandate and the basic human right to social security Realizing ILO’s Mandate and the basic human right to social security  Every human right has a «minimum core content» without which the right becomes meaningless  Horizontal dimension of the extension strategy  Once this minimum core content has been established, countries have the obligation to progressively move towards the full realization of the right to social security by establishing higher levels of social security protection, according to their social and economic development and to the maximum of their available resources  Vertical dimension of the extension strategy

International Labour Office 5 ILO’s main tools for pursuing its mandate: ILO social security standards Flagship: Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102)  Defines 9 branches of social security  Medical care benefit, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, old-age benefit, employment injury benefits, maternity benefit, family benefit, invalidity benefit, survivors’ benefit  Sets minimum standards for these nine branches  Is based on commonly agreed social security principles  Thus, it remains of utmost importance and relevance for the vertical dimension of the extension strategy  However, it does not require univeral social security coverage and thus, it does not ensure a rights based approach for the horizontal dimension

International Labour Office 6 Ratification map of Convention No. 102 (46 ratifications as of July 2010; 5 African countries) countriesratifications of )

International Labour Office 7 Key issues to be discussed  How can Convention No. 102 better guide African constituents in extending social security to all in Africa? What kind of assistance do African constituents regard as needed to better integrate the Convention in their social security policy decisions?  What do African constituents consider as obstacles to ratification of Convention No. 102, and how can it be explained that there has been no ratification in the last decades? How can these obstacles, in the view of African constituents, be overcome and the number of ratifications from African countries increased? What assistance can ILO provide in this regard?  Do African constituents consider that a new ILO mechanism complementing Convention No. 102 would make a significant contribution to close the coverage gap? If so, what form could this new ILO mechanism take (Convention, Recommendation, Non-binding Multilateral Framework) and how could it be designed to effectively respond to the needs of African countries so as to guarantee the realization of the right to social security for everyone and eventually lead to the ratification of Convention No. 102?

International Labour Office 8 Thank you