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 one of the firs ...

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

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...

, 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 ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 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, 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 Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

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.'' (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 Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future. It includes: * probable continued solvency * predictability of the future cash ...

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. For example, the intent of equal ...

.'' (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 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) is one of six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization, specifically in regards to the fifteen specialized ...

.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, 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, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

and

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

References

External links

Declaration concerning the aims and purposes of the International Labour Organisation
(Declaration of Philadelphia)
ILO Declaration of Philadelphia
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807001520/http://blue.lim.ilo.org/cariblex/pdfs/ILO_dec_philadelphia.pdf , date=7 August 2018
Constitution of the ILO
International Labour Organization 1944 in international relations May 1944 May 1944 in the United States 1944 conferences