ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a general introduction to discussions of ‘global governance’ that are relevant to the main theme of voluntary regulations on labour. This includes a brief presentation of the International Labour Organization (ILO), by no means the ‘global overarching authority’ on labour, but certainly the essential institutional anchor of all regulatory steps. The ILO was founded in 1919 in the aftermath of World War I. The work of the ILO is setting international labour standards that are embodied in the International Labour Code with its Conventions and Recommendations. Throughout the 1990s, international unions were more focused on a political strategy aimed at incorporating ILO labour standards into the World Trade Organization sanction mechanisms. The international environment is the neoliberal framework of economic globalization: deregulation of capital controls, elimination of trade barriers, market-driven development. The ILO is the major institution in the field of labour, but in the chorus of international institutions, it is the weakest.
