October 17, 2002
Ten leading representatives of the Russian business community together with the representatives of UN agencies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labour and Social Development attended a meeting on 24 September organized by the ILO on the important issue of Discrimination.
The ILO Convention #111 on Discrimination, ratified by the Russian Federation in 1961, calls for a national policy to eliminate discrimination in access to employment, training, and working conditions, on grounds of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, and to promote equality of opportunity and treatment.
In her opening remark, Ms Barrett-Reid, Director of the ILO Moscow office, said: "Leading business men and women in the Russian Federation have an important leadership role to play in ensuring that principles of non-discrimination are implemented on a day-to-day basis. Much good practice exists in the Russian Federation and it is important that this good practice is disseminated".
Ms Irina Melekh, specialist on gender issues in the ILO Moscow Office, delivered a presentation in which she explained the nature of discrimination, the different forms it takes and why the business community should be interested in the subject and how it can make a difference.
The Global Compact was officially launched in the Russian Federation during a high-level roundtable meeting organized conjointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the UN agencies in November 2001. For the first time a Steering Committee on the Global Compact initiative in the Russian Federation was convened on April 11, 2002. This event showed the interest from the Russian entrepreneurs in participating in this endeavor undertaken by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in order to closely associate the worldwide business community with the promotion of fundamental rights.
Four of the nine principles promoted in the Global Compact are the ILO principles, reaffirmed in the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at work:
The meeting was the second of four that are to be organized each around one of the 4 ILO principles of the Global Compact. The first meeting was organized on the issue of child labour and the third will be organized around the issue of collective bargaining. For more information please contact ILO Moscow Office; Ms. Severine Deboos, Programme Officer, Employment Sector tel. (095) 933 0823, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Irina Melekh, Gender Specialist, tel. 933 0828, fax 933 0820, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it The ILO website can be accessed at www.ilo.ru
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