The ILO and Latin American Conflicting Ties

ZORZOLI, LUCIANA

Paris

Conferencia; Colloque Justice sociale et travail décent : 100 ans d?action de l?OIT; 2019

Organisation Internationale du Travail y Ministère du Travail

THE ILO AND LATIN AMERICA?S CONFLICTING TIESThe aim of this proposal is to present the outputs of my postdoctoral project. The project focuses on the ?Cases? opened at the ILO Freedom of Association Committee against the Argentinean and Chilean dictatorships for violating workers? rights while fostering my interest in how the universal and standardised norms and principles of the ILO were ?translated? in the region. The Cases haven?t received enough attention from researchers yet, even when they were an important channel for ILO actions in the region and produced a large set of political and legal consequences that deserve special academic consideration. First, because through them it is possible to study the internal tensions of the ILO; the reception and ?translation? of the ILO Conventions incorporated in the national legal systems during the 20th Century, and the use of them by different actors, especially Trade Unions and governments. Secondly, because on each Case, unstudied documentation about the period can be found, as well as remarkable information about mediators and experts? networks functioning when those authoritarian governments tried to make serious redrafting of the original labour legislation. And finally, since they included reports of the direct contacts missions performed by ILO?s officials visiting governmental authorities, victims, unions leaders and denouncers, in what can be seen as a laboratory of how those ideas were put in practice. To fully understand the impact of the Cases in Argentina and Chile between 1973-1990, the fact that both countries were active in the ILO almost since it foundation and ratified international labour Conventions at the same time that they were developing their own ?modern? encoding for labour relations must be acknowledge (Suriano 2012; Suriano, Lobato, y Ramacciotti 2014; Yañez Andrade 1999; Salazar Vergara y Pinto 1999; Humeres Noguer 2016). That process, that was crucial in the building of modern states, was done much later than their national laws and Constitutions, adding an extra layer of complexity that is not always adequately addressed. The paper considers the relations between Argentina, Chile and the ILO from the viewpoint of labour law history in the region, while performing a qualitative approach to the Committee on Freedom of Association?s Cases 842, 765 and 823 available on NormLex (and after a direct reading made on a research visit to ILO?s Archives in Geneva).Dr ZORZOLI CONICET Postdoctoral Fellow (Argentina) and SOAS Postdoctoral Research Associate (University of London, UK). Former Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Columbia University, NY.Proposed for the Axis Norms and regulation Related publications1.Publications related to the topic: Zorzoli, L (2017) ?La OIT y las dictaduras latinoamericanas: una aproximación al Caso 842 contra Argentina?, Anuario del Instituto de Historia Argentina, vol. 17, nº 1, e037. Link here.2.Zorzoli, L. (2016) ?Operativo Ginebra. Análisis de las actitudes de la dirigencia sindical en el contexto de instalación de la última dictadura militar argentina? Revista Archivos de Historia Vol. 8, Núm. 8, p13-32 Argentina. 3.Zorzoli, L (forthcoming) «Workers and workers? organizations under the military rule in Argentina: toward a new synthesis» in Zorzoli & Grigera (Comp). "Rethinking the ´Proceso´: the Argentinean dictatorship in perspective?, Palgrave MacMillan, Series: Studies of the Americas.Mentioned BibliographyDuve, Thomas, ed. 2014. Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches. 1.a ed. Vol. 1. Global Perspectives on Legal History. Max Planck Institute for European Legal History.???. 2018. «Global Legal History: A Methodological Approach - Oxford Handbooks», 26.Humeres Noguer, Héctor. 2016. «Evolución histórica del Derecho del Trabajo en Chile». Revista Chilena de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social 5 (9).Leary, Virginia A. 1982. 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