AMITY LAW SCHOOL NOIDA

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
9
ORGANIZATION
PROJECT

TOPIC – FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Submitted to:- Manufactured

by:-
M.s Anandita Joshi Surya Pratap
Singh Enrollment no :
A11921615038
B.COM LLB(H) 2016-2021
SECTION B
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been
possible without the kind support and help of many individuals. I would like
to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.

I am highly indebted to M.s Anandita Joshi for her guidance and constant
supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the
project & also for their support in completing the project.

I would like to express my gratitude towards

9 my parents & friends for their
kind co-operation and encouragement which help me in completion of this
project.

SURYA PRATAP SINGH

 INDEX
 Freedom of Association

 Freedom of Association and ILO Convention No. 87

1. Convention No. 87
2. Application of the Convention
3. Rights recognised in the convention
4. Who can enjoy these rights?
5. No restriction on these rights
6. Certain Duties of the organizations and its members
7. Undertaking by the member States

9
 Freedom of Association
Freedom of association is the right to join or leave groups of a person's own choosing, and for
the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of members. It is both an individual
right and a collective right, guaranteed by all modern and democratic legal systems, including the
United States Bill of Rights, article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and international law, including articles 20 and 23 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Conventions 87 and 98 of the International
Labour Organization.

Freedom of association is primarily manifested through the right to join a trade union, free
speech or debating societies, political parties, or any other club or association such as religious
groups, fraternities, or sport clubs. It is closely linked with the freedom of assembly, particularly
under the US Bill of Rights. More specifically
9 the freedom of assembly is understood in a
political context, although depending on the source (constitution, human rights instrument, etc.)
the right to freedom of association may be understood to include the right to freedom of
assembly.1

Kahn Fruend expressed that freedom of association involves two aspects

 absence of restraints and

 presence of positive guarantees.

Absence of restraints means the state shall not impose any restrictions. Previously there was an
Act called Combinations Prohibition Act 1799, which prohibited any organization of workers
and there was no right to form associations. With regard to second aspect, the presence of
positive guarantees means that the state as well as employer should provide suitable atmosphere

1
http://www.grkarelawlibrary.yolasite.com/resources/LLMSY-Lab-1-Prakash.pdf
to unions to grow in a healthy manner to work for the welfare of the workers. In Britain after a
long struggle workers achieved the right to form organization.2

According to the dictionary meaning of the freedom of association, it means, the right to form
societies, clubs, and other groups of people, and to meet with people individually, without
interference by the government.3

Freedom of Association and ILO Convention No. 87

Workers' organizations had been demanding recognition of freedom of association well before
the establishment of the ILO. As an integral part of basic human rights and as a cornerstone of
the provisions intended to ensure the defence of workers’ freedom of association is particularly
important for the ILO in view of the latter's tripartite structure. It is also of undoubted interest to
employers' organizations, which now make greater use of the procedures which have been
established for the purpose of ensuring its application. The ILO could therefore not fail to
include this principle in its Constitution of 1919 as one of the objectives of its programme of
action. The Preamble to Part XIII" of the Treaty of Versailles mentioned "recognition of the
principle of freedom of association" among the9 objectives to be promoted by the ILO, and the
general principles set forth in Article 427 of the Treaty contained a provision concerning "the
right of association for all lawful purposes by the employed as well as by the employers4".

Freedom of association having thus been proclaimed from the outset as one of the fundamental
principles of the Organization, the need was rapidly felt to adopt provisions aimed at defining
this general concept more precisely and to set forth its essential elements in a formal ILO
instrument in order that its general application could effectively be promoted and supervised. An
initial attempt to do this failed in 1927.

In 1944, the Constitution of the ILO was supplemented by the inclusion of the Declaration of
Philadelphia, which reaffirmed “the fundamental principles on which the Organization is based
2
Kahn Fruend, Labour and the Law, Stevens and sons, London (1983)

3
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom+of+association

4
Freedom of Association and Collective bargaining, ILO Pub. Geneva (1994) p.2
and, in particular, that freedom of expression and of association is essential to sustained
progress".

The two main instruments of the ILO that protect the freedom of association of workers are the
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 1948 (Convention
No. 87) and the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (Convention No.
98). On account of the importance of the principles contained in the two Conventions, they have
been categorised as ‘fundamental conventions’ requiring universal observance.5

Convention No. 87

The Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87),
applies to workers and employers and their organizations and set forth certain rights and
guarantees. 150 member states of the ILO have ratified Convention No. 87.

In this Convention, Article 2 recognises the right of the workers and employers to establish and
9
to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation.

Application of the Convention

The Convention applies to all workers-with the exception of the armed forces and the police and
all employers. The Convention guarantees to all workers, without any distinction, the right to
establish and join organizations of their own choosing, without prior authorization. It makes an
exception in the case of the armed forces6 and the police by providing that the extent to which the
Convention shall apply to the armed forces and the police shall be determined by national laws
or regulations.

5
https://books.google.co.in/books?
id=N_jusSSm2QMC&pg=PA131&dq=international+labour+organisation+convention+87&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pBT7VJb
nCYa6uATr6IHgBg&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=convention%20no.%2087&f=false

6
Article 9.
 Rights recognised in the convention
 Article 3 according to this article, the organisations should have the following rights:

 To draw up their constitutions and rules,

 To elect their representatives in full freedom,

 To organise their administration and activities, and

 To formulate their programmes.

 Article 4 recognises the right of the organisations not to be suspended or dissolved by the
administrative authority. Thus, there can’t be any suspension or dissolution of the organisation
by any administrative authority.

 Article 5 recognises the other right of the organisations. According to this article, the
organisations shall have the right to establish and join federations and confederations and any
such organisation, federation or confederation shall have the right to affiliate with international
organisations of workers and employers.
9

Who can enjoy these rights?

According to Article 6, the provisions of Article 2, 3 and 4 also applies to the federations and
confederations of the organisations. Thus, all the rights confronted by the convention can be
enjoyed by

 the organizations

 federations and

 confederations of the organizations.

According to Article 10, the term organisation means any organisation of workers or of
employers for furthering and defending the interests of workers or of employers.

No restriction on these rights

According to Article 7, the conditions for the acquisition of the legal personality by the
organisations, federations and confederations can’t restrict the rights confronted by the
convention.

Certain Duties of the organizations and its members

According to Article 8, in exercising the rights provided for in the Convention, workers and
employers and their respective organisations, like other persons or organized collectivities, shall
respect the law of the land. The law of the land shall not be such as to impair, nor shall it be so
applies as to impair, the guarantees provided for in the convention.

Undertaking by the member States

According to Article 11, each Member of the International Labour Organisation for which this
Convention is in force undertakes to take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that
workers and employers may exercise freely the right to organise.
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 OVER CONCLUSION A.K.A SELF THOUGHT

In my perspective ILO should not exist as apart from minimum wages and maximum working
hours everything is covered by IHRL , and the above mentioned statement is debatable , if
international organizations follow basic human rights we don’t need ILO we only need a set
minimum wage and a maximum duration of work ,