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16. Ratifying and implementing international labour standards and realizing
fundamental principles and rights at work: Across the region, there are widespread and systemic barriers to the exercise of fundamental principles and rights at work
– both in law and in practice. Child labour and forced labour are still a major concerns. Approximately
10 per cent of children in Asia are labourers, and of this group over half are trapped in one of the worst forms of child labour, often employed in hazardous work.
8
The Asia and the Pacific region also accounts for 56 per cent of global forced labour.
9
In some countries, labour legislation imposes considerable constraints on the rights of workers to organize,
bargain collectively, or strike. Finally, certain categories of workers defined along lines of sex, caste, ethnicity, and disability for instance continue to face discrimination in
employment and occupation and have systemic difficulties benefiting from educational and employment opportunities.
17. Decent work deficits are reflected
in the region’s poor ratification record with respect to the ILO’s fundamental Conventions Table 2. Globally, these eight Conventions enjoy
near-universal ratification, but in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining, only half of th
e region’s countries have ratified C87 and C98. In total, Asia and the Pacific accounts for 20 of the 23 countries worldwide that have not ratified C87, and
26 of the 34 countries that have not ratified C98.
Table 2. Ratification of ILO Fundamental Conventions, by sub region, 2016
Source: ILO NORMLEX [Accessed 3 August 2016]
18. A critical priority for the region is to guarantee the free exercise of fundamental rights at
work, in particular by ratifying and fully applying the eight ILO fundamental human rights Conventions. Non-ratification and non-enforcement of these standards result in an uneven
playing field that undermines the efforts of responsible, compliant businesses. However, t
he region’s ratifications of the core equality Conventions, C100 and C111, are among the lowest in the world. As regards the forced labour Conventions, in all other regions of the
world C29 and C105 have been almost universally ratified; the remaining non-ratifications are to be found primarily in the Asia and the Pacific region. As well, the Asia and the Pacific
countries that have ratified C29 should move to ratify the Protocol to C29 that requires States to take measures regarding prevention, protection and remedy in giving effect to the
obligations under C29.
19. Better application and labour inspection: Even if countries have improved standards and
regulations in line with international labour standards, these are undermined by weak enforcement. This has resulted in hazardous working conditions and regular major
8
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour IPEC: World Report on Child Labour 2015: Paving the way to decent work for young people
Geneva, ILO, 2015.
9
ILO: Profits and poverty: the economics of forced labour Geneva, 2014.
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accidents that have, for example, resulted in the deaths of migrant construction workers in Gulf Cooperation Council countries, garment factory workers in Bangladesh, Pakistan and
the Philippines, and chemical warehouse workers in China. These are only the most visible incidents; poor working conditions and countless accidents and illnesses go unreported.
Poor implementation of ratified Conventions, such as the eight fundamental Conventions, has resulted in for example discrimination, sexual harassment, and gender pay gaps.
20. Some of the problems lie in weak labour inspectorates that are often understaffed and
under-equipped, with officers that are under-trained and under-paid. Inspectors often have to deal with multiple mandates and competing policy priorities. Moreover, often
inspectorates limit their focus to formal workplaces, thus excluding vast numbers of workers in the informal economy as well as in agriculture, home-based and domestic work.
21. If the goals of the Decent Work Agenda are to be realised and inequality addressed, labour
