ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the actions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the sector of vocational rehabilitation both internationally and nationally. It looks at the construction of the main normative text related to the vocational rehabilitation of the disabled. The chapter presents how this standard circulated on the international level and what impact it exerted on national debates. It discusses the contents of the technical assistance given by the ILO experts in vocational rehabilitation in several developing countries during the 1950s and 1960s. The majority favoured the adoption of a recommendation, i.e. a sufficiently flexible regulation so that each country could act according to its economic conditions and its possibilities of development. Socialist countries defended the idea that all the disabled should have the right to access to vocational rehabilitation and employment, including the severely disabled, regardless of the employment situation in the country.
