The purpose of this essay is to explore the extent and nature of the difficulties in determining the ILO's role in the new economic order, both inside and outside the ILO, with a view to helping to assess the larger issue of the proper way to conceive of the ILO's mandate in the context of the global economy. The newly adopted Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work is used here as a basis for discussion, reflection and analysis to that end.
In the broadest terms the Declaration is, at least for the moment, the ILO's resolution of what can be described as an identity crisis with which it has been struggling for some time. That identity crisis revolves around a central existential question - what is the role, in the new world of economic integration and 'globalization', of the mandate of the organization called the ILO?
International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations