The Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs wishes to put records straight regarding the inaccuracies reported in the Mmegi newspaper article of June 20, 2013 purportedly by BOFEPUSU.According to the said article, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is reported to have ranked Botswana among the top 10 violators of workers' rights in the world. The truth of the matter is that the ILO does not rank countries in terms of the violation instead ILO monitors the implementation of Conventions ratified by member states in terms of the ILO Constitution. For this purpose ILO has established supervisory structures to examine law and practice by member states to ensure compliance with the Conventions.
These structures include:
Committee of Experts on the application of Conventions and Recommendations whose role is to provide an impartial and technical evaluation of the state of application of international labour standards. Committee on Freedom of Association whose purpose is to examine complaints about violations of freedom of association, whether or not the country concerned has ratified the relevant conventions. Complaints may be brought against a member state by employers' and workers' organisations.If it decides to receive the case, it establishes the facts in dialogue with the government concerned.Conference Committee on the Application of Standards whose role is to examine the report compiled by the Committee of Experts on ratified Conventions in a tripartite setting and selects from it a number of observations for discussion.
