Which one of the following is not part of the aims and purposes of the ILO as per Philadelphia Declaration?

Correct — D, (d) The war against want requires to be carried on with unrelenting vigour within each nation and is solely the responsibility of the government. The stem asks which statement is not part of the aims and purposes of the ILO as declared at Philadelphia, and the word not is printed in bold italic. Three of the options reproduce the fundamental principles of Part I of the Declaration word for word. This one begins as a quotation and then finishes as its opposite.

The genuine fourth principle reads: 'the war against want requires to be carried on with unrelenting vigour within each nation, and by continuous and concerted international effort in which the representatives of workers and employers, enjoying equal status with those of governments, join with them in free discussion and democratic decision with a view to the promotion of the common welfare.' The clause therefore says two things that the option denies. First, national effort is not enough — the war against want also requires continuous and concerted international effort, which is the justification for having an international labour organisation at all. Second, and more pointedly, it is not the government's business alone: workers’ and employers’ representatives take part in it enjoying equal status with governments.

That second point is not an incidental phrase; it is the organisation's constitutive idea. The ILO is the only tripartite body in the United Nations system, and it is tripartite by design in every organ. Each member State's delegation to the International Labour Conference consists of two government delegates, one employers’ delegate and one workers’ delegate, and the non-government delegates speak and vote independently of their governments. The Governing Body is composed on the same principle. A statement that makes the war against want solely the responsibility of the government contradicts the structure of the institution that made the statement.

The item also carries a double negative and it is worth naming. The stem asks which statement is not part of the aims and purposes, and option (a) — a genuine principle — itself contains the word 'not' in ordinary type. A candidate reading at speed can register the negation in (a), read it as a mismatch with the stem, and mark it. The defence is to read every option to its end before choosing, which on this item is decisive: the false clause identifies itself only in its last dozen words.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)Labour is not a commodity. — This is the first of the fundamental principles reaffirmed in Part I of the Declaration of Philadelphia, quoted exactly, and it is the oldest idea in international labour law. Its ancestry runs back to the Clayton Act of 1914 in the United States, which declared that the labour of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce, and to the founding Preamble of the ILO in 1919. What it asserts is that work is an aspect of a human being and cannot be traded like grain or steel, so that wages and conditions are not to be settled by the market alone. Notice that the word 'not' inside this option is ordinary roman type and belongs to the principle itself; it is not the negation the stem is asking about.
• (b)Freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress. — This is the second fundamental principle of Part I, again quoted exactly. It is the ILO's link between civil liberty and social progress: workers and employers cannot organise, bargain or be represented at all unless they are free to speak and to associate, so freedom of association is treated not as a political luxury but as a precondition of the organisation's own machinery. The principle is given effect by two of the ILO's fundamental Conventions — the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) — neither of which India has ratified, a point recruitment papers ask directly.
• (c)Poverty anywhere constitutes danger to prosperity everywhere. — This is the third fundamental principle of Part I, quoted exactly, and it is the sentence most often cited from the Declaration. It restates in economic terms what the ILO's founding Preamble of 1919 had put in competitive terms — that the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve conditions in their own countries. Poverty in one country depresses conditions elsewhere and threatens the peace, which is why labour standards are set internationally rather than left to each State.

The International Labour Organization was created in 1919 by Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles, in the conviction — set out in its Preamble — that universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice. In 1944, with the Second World War still being fought, the International Labour Conference met at Philadelphia and on 10 May adopted the Declaration concerning the aims and purposes of the International Labour Organisation. It was annexed to the ILO Constitution and forms part of it. Part I reaffirms four fundamental principles: that labour is not a commodity; that freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress; that poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere; and that the war against want must be waged with unrelenting vigour within each nation and by continuous and concerted international effort in which workers’ and employers’ representatives enjoy equal status with governments. Part II affirms that all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity. Part III sets out the programmes the ILO is solemnly obliged to further, among them full employment and rising standards of living, policies on wages and hours, the effective recognition of the right of collective bargaining, the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection, adequate protection for the life and health of workers, child welfare and maternity protection, and equality of educational and vocational opportunity. The ILO became the first specialised agency of the United Nations in 1946 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969; India was a founder member and its headquarters are at Geneva.

Key facts

• The Declaration of Philadelphia was adopted on 10 May 1944 at the 26th session of the International Labour Conference and is annexed to the ILO Constitution.
• Part I reaffirms four principles: labour is not a commodity; freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress; poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere; and the war against want requires unrelenting vigour within each nation and continuous and concerted international effort.
• The fourth principle expressly gives workers’ and employers’ representatives equal status with governments in that effort.
• Part II affirms the right of all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, to pursue material well-being and spiritual development in conditions of freedom, dignity, economic security and equal opportunity.
• The ILO was founded in 1919 under Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and became the first specialised agency of the United Nations in 1946.
• It is the only tripartite organisation in the UN system: each national delegation to the Conference has two government delegates, one employers’ delegate and one workers’ delegate.
• Conventions No. 87 (1948) and No. 98 (1949), which give effect to freedom of association and collective bargaining, have not been ratified by India.
• The ILO received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969; its headquarters are at Geneva and India is a founder member.

Common traps

• Marking option (a) because it contains the word 'not'. That negation belongs to the principle itself, not to the ask.
• Stopping at a familiar opening. Three of these options are quotations and the false one begins as a quotation too.
• Forgetting the international limb of the fourth principle. National effort alone is not what the Declaration calls for.
• Overlooking tripartism, which is both the answer to this item and the fastest test for any statement about the ILO.
• Attributing to the Philadelphia Declaration language that belongs to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a confusion this paper builds a later question on.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Declaration concerning the aims and purposes of the International Labour Organisation, known as the Declaration of Philadelphia, was adopted in

  • (a)1919
  • (b)1944
  • (c)1946
  • (d)1948

  Answer(b) 1944

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Declaration of Philadelphia forms part of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation as its

  • (a)Preamble
  • (b)Annex
  • (c)First Schedule
  • (d)Article 1

  Answer(b) Annex