Convention Concerning Freedom of Association

 

PART I. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Article 1

Each Member of the International Labour Organisation for which this
Convention is in force undertakes to give effect to the following
provisions.

Article 2

Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right
to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organisation concerned,
to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation.

Article 3

1. Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall have the right 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.

2. The public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would
restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof.

Article 4

Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall not be liable to be dissolved
or suspended by administrative authority.

Article 5

Workers’ and employers’ 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.

Article 6

The provisions of Articles 2, 3 and 4 hereof apply to federations and
confederations of workers’ and employers’ organisations.

Article 7

The acquisition of legal personality by workers’ and employers’
organisations, federations and confederations shall not be made subject to
conditions of such a character as to restrict the application of the
provisions of Articles 2, 3 and 4 hereof.

Article 8

1. In exercising the rights provided for in this Convention workers and
employers and their respective organisations, like other persons or
organised collectivities, shall respect the law of the land.

2. The law of the land shall not be such as to impair, nor shall it be so
applied as to impair, the guarantees provided for in this Convention.

Article 9

1. The extent to which the guarantees provided for in this Convention shall
apply to the armed forces and the police shall be determined by national
laws or regulations.

2. In accordance with the principle set forth in paragraph 8 of Article 19
of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation the
ratification of this Convention by any Member shall not be deemed to affect
any existing law, award, custom or agreement in virtue of which members of
the armed forces or the police enjoy any right guaranteed by this
Convention.

Article 10

In this Convention the term “organisation”means any organisation of workers
or of employers for furthering and defending the interests of workers or of
employers.

PART II. PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO ORGANISE

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.

PART III. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

Article 12

1. In respect of the territories referred to in Article 35 of the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation as amended by the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation Instrument of
Amendment, 1946, other than the territories referred to in paragraphs 4 and
5 of the said Article as so amended, each Member of the Organisation which
ratifies this Convention shall communicate to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office with or as soon as possible after its
ratification a declaration stating–

(a) the territories in respect of which it undertakes that the provisions
of the Convention shall be applied without modification;

(b) the territories in respect of which it undertakes that the provisions
of the Convention shall be applied subject to modifications, together
with details of the said modifications;

(c) the territories in respect of which the Convention is inapplicable
and in such cases the grounds on which it is inapplicable;

(d) the territories in respect of which it reserves its decision.

2. The undertakings referred to in subparagraph (a) and (b) of paragraph 1
of this Article shall be deemed to be an integral part of the ratification
and shall have the force of ratification.

3. Any Member may at any time by a subsequent declaration cancel in whole
or in part any reservations made in its original declaration in virtue of
subparagraphs (b), (c) or (d) of paragraph 1 of this Article.

4. Any Member may, at any time at which this Convention is subject to
denunciation in accordance with the provisions of Article 16, communicate
to the Director-General a declaration modifying in any other respect the
terms of any former declaration and stating the present position in respect
of such territories as it may specify.

Article 13

1. Where the subject matter of this Convention is within the self-governing
powers of any non-metropolitan territory, the Member responsible for the
international relations of that territory may, in agreement with the
government of the territory, communicate to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office a declaration accepting on behalf of the
territory the obligations of this Convention.

2. A declaration accepting the obligations of this Convention may be
communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office–

(a) by two or more Members of the Organisation in respect of any
territory which is under their joint authority; or

(b) by any international authority responsible for the administration of
any territory, in virtue of the Charter of the United Nations or
otherwise, in respect of any such territory.

3. Declarations communicated to the Director-General of the International
Labour Office in accordance with the preceding paragraphs of this Article
shall indicate whether the provisions of the Convention will be applied in
the territory concerned without modification or subject to modifications;
when the declaration indicates that the provisions of the Convention will
be applied subject to modifications it shall give details of the said
modifications.

4. The Member, Members or international authority concerned may at any time
by a subsequent declaration renounce in whole or in part the right to have
recourse to any modification indicated in any former declaration.

5. The Member, Members or international authority concerned may, at any time
at which this Convention is subject to denunciation in accordance with the
provisions of Article 16, communicate to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office a declaration modifying in any other respect the
terms of any former declaration and stating the present position in respect
of the application of the Convention.

PART IV. FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 14

The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the
Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.

Article 15

1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the
International Labour Organisation whose ratifications have been registered
with the Director-General.

2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the
ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Director-General.

3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve
months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.

Article 16

1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not
take effect until one year after the date on which it is registered.

2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within
the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in
the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in
this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter,
may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years
under the terms provided for in this Article.

Article 17

1. The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify all
Members of the International Labour Organisation of the registration of all
ratifications, declarations and denunciations communicated to him by the
Members of the Organisation.

2. When notifying the Members of the Organisation of the registration of the
second ratification communicated to him, the Director-General shall draw the
attention of the Members of the Organisation to the date upon which the
Convention will come into force.

Article 18

The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall communicate
to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for registration in
accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full
particulars of all ratifications, declarations and acts of denunciation
registered by him in accordance with the provisions of the preceding
Articles.

Article 19

At the expiration of each period of ten years after the coming into force
of this Convention, the Governing body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the agenda of
the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.

Article 20

1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in
whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides,

(a) the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall
ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 16 above, if and when the
new revising Convention shall have come into force;

(b) as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the
Members.

2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and
content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the
revising Convention.

Article 21

The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally
authoritative.

The foregoing is the authentic text of the Convention duly adopted by the
General Conference of the International Labour Organisation during its
Thirty-first Session which was held at San Francisco and declared closed the
tenth day of July 1948.

IN FAITH WHEREOF we have appended our signatures this thirty-first day of
August 1948.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Charter of the United Nations, Constitutions, Conventions: Chronological Index, Human Rights conventions.