GENEVA (ILO News) - In an action unprecedented in the ILO's 80-year history, the Organization's Governing Body has set in motion a discussion in its June 2000 Conference, which could result in an appeal to its other 174 member States to review their relationship with the Government of Myanmar (Burma) and to take appropriate measures to ensure that Myanmar "cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour" practised against the country's citizens.

Invoking for the first time article 33 of the ILO Constitution, the Organization's Governing Body recommended that the International Labour Conference, meeting in Geneva in June this year, "take such action as it may deem wise and expedient to secure compliance" by Myanmar with the recommendations of a 1998 Commission of Inquiry.

Article 33 is designed for use only in the event of a country failing to carry out the recommendations of an ILO Commission of Inquiry, which is itself a procedure reserved for grave and persistent violations of international labour standards.

The 1998 Commission concluded that "the obligation to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour is violated in Myanmar in national law as well as in actual practice in a widespread and systematic manner, with total disregard for the human dignity, safety, health and basic needs of the people."

An updated report by the ILO Director-General Juan Somavia examined new evidence of the situation and concluded that an order issued by the Government of Myanmar on 14 May 1999 does not exclude the imposition of forced labour in violation of the Convention, and "in actual practice, forced or compulsory labour continues to be imposed in a widespread manner." It detailed instances of forced labour imposed especially by the military in contradiction to the Government's assertion that forced labour is never applied in the country.

These include such activities as forced portering, cultivating food for the army, use of forced labourers as messengers, sentries, builders and for a variety of other duties, including harsh work on railroads, canals and other infrastructure development. It also includes forced sex for the military. Failure to comply with the demands of the military authorities can and have resulted in the arrest and torture of those resisting.

Proposed measures will ensure future scrutiny of labour practices in Myanmar within the ILO's Committee of Experts, its Governing Body and the Conference and - if the country does not respond to calls for it to cooperate with the ILO - will likely deepen its isolation within the ILO. An extraordinary Conference resolution adopted in 1999 decreed that the Government of Myanmar "should cease to benefit from any technical cooperation or assistance of the ILO, except for the purpose of direct assistance to implement immediately the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry."

The Director-General expressed his hope that "Myanmar would respond to the urgent appeal of the Governing Body and immediately take the urgent action necessary to putting an end to the intolerable practice of forced labour and cooperate with the ILO." He warned if Myanmar persists in ignoring the expressed will of the Organization, "the Governing Body's historic decision opens the way for the Conference to enlist the support of ILO constituents, the United Nations, governments and international organizations worldwide to review their dealings with Myanmar to ensure that by their involvement they are in no way contributing to the perpetuation of this grievous human rights abuse."

Yesterday's Governing Body decision, which was adopted without vote and was categorically rejected by the Government Representative of Myanmar, is the latest in a long series of ILO findings and efforts to eliminate forced labour in that country. Myanmar has already been rebuked by the ILO's supervisory committees on the application of labour standards for abuse of the Forced Labour Convention on numerous occasions. Last year's Conference already decreed that "the attitude and behaviour of the Government of Myanmar are grossly incompatible with the conditions and principles governing membership of the Organization," a view that was echoed by a number of speakers at yesterday's Governing Body session.