The Declaration of Philadelphia (10 May 1944) restated the traditional objectives of the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

(ILO) and then branched out in two new directions: the centrality of

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

to social policy, and the need for international economic planning. With the end of the world war in sight, it sought to adapt the guiding principles of the ILO "to the new realities and to the new aspirations aroused by the hopes for a better world." It was adopted at the 26th Conference of the ILO in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, United States of America. In 1946, when the ILO's constitution was being revised by the General Conference convened in Montreal, the Declaration of Philadelphia was annexed to the constitution and forms an integral part of it by Article 1.Joseph Sulkowski
"The Competence of the International Labor Organization Under the United Nations System"
(1951) 45 (2) ''The American Journal of International Law'' 286 accessed 24 August 2011. The declaration, in full, the ''Declaration concerning the aims and purposes of the International Labour Organisation, adopted at the 26th session of the ILO, Philadelphia, 10 May 1944'' was drafted by the then acting ILO Director,

Edward J. Phelan Edward Joseph Phelan (25 July 1888 – 15 September 1967), frequently E. J. Phelan, was the first appointed international civil servant and fourth Director-General of the International Labour Office, serving from 1941 to 1948, during most of which ...

, and C. Wilfred Jenks.Norman F. Dufty
"Organizational Growth and Goal Structure: The Case of the ILO"
(1972) 26 (3) ''International Organization'' 479 accessed 24 August 2011International Labour Organization, Director-General's Office

9 February 2006 accessed 24 August 2011. Most of the demands of the declaration were a result of a partnership of American and Western European labor unions and the ILO secretariat.

Broad and general terms

The declaration begins with general aims and purposes for the ILO and then enumerates specific reforms which, unlike those in the original ILO constitution, are expressed in broader terms to address both immediate and future needs and aspirations and to avoid any provision from becoming spent.

Outline

The declaration focused on a series of key principles to embody the work of the ILO. These include: * '' Labour is not a commodity.'' (I, a) * '' Freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress.'' * ''Poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere.'' (I, c) * ''the war against want requires ... unrelenting vigour ... (for) the promotion of the common

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

.'' (I, d) * ''All human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and

equal opportunity Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. The intent is that the important ...

.'' (II, a) To achieve these fundamental goals "effective international and national action" is necessary (IV). The declaration does not envision its universal principles giving rise to uniform

labour standards International labour law is the body of rules spanning public and private international law which concern the rights and duties of employees, employers, trade unions and governments in regulating Work (human activity) and the workplace. The Interna ...

but expressly states that they "must be determined with due regard to the stage of social and economic development reached by each people," but that "their progressive application to peoples who are still dependent, as well as those who have already achieved self-government, is a matter of concern to the whole civilized world" (V).

Assessment

The ILO, as with most of the League of Nations system, hibernated in the late 1930s. The Declaration of Philadelphia brought it back to life.Daniel J. Whelan and Jack Donnelly, "The West, Economic and Social Rights, and the Global Human Rights Regime: Setting the Record Straight" (2007) 29 (4) Human Rights Quarterly 908. The Declaration of Philadelphia envisioned the ILO as the master agency among the specialized international bodies, placing the ILO "on the same plane as the UN as the economic counterpart of that world political body."Ernst Haas, ''Beyond the Nation State'' (1964) p 156 :""If the Philadelphia Declaration had been taken literally by those who voted for it, the ILO would have developed into the master agency among the emerging family of functional international bodies ...". Instead, the role it saw for the ILO was taken by the

United Nations Economic and Social Council The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC; french: links=no, Conseil économique et social des Nations unies, ) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields ...

.Richard A. Melanson
"Human Rights and the American Withdrawal from the ILO"
(1979) 1 (1) Universal Human Rights 43 24 August 2011. The declaration's emphasis on human rights was to bear more fruit: the ILO promulgated a series of Conventions and Recommendations dealing with labour inspection, freedom of association, the right to organise and collectively bargain,

equal pay Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...

, against

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

and discrimination.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Declaration concerning the aims and purposes of the International Labour Organisation
(Declaration of Philadelphia)
ILO Declaration of PhiladelphiaConstitution of the ILO
International Labour Organization 1944 in international relations May 1944 events 1944 conferences