Assessment of Source: U.S. Department of State Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices
The State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
provides a fundamental source of information on compliance with international
labor standards. They are particularly valuable because they cover
so much of the globe (196 countries in the year 2002 report), because they
are updated annually, and because they provide information on all core
international labor standards and acceptable conditions of work.
Due to the continuing discrepancy between the U.S. legal definition of
internationally recognized worker rights and the ILO consensus definition,
however, the labor rights section of these reports (Section 6) provides
information on only three of the four core standards; the reader must turn
to Section 5 for information on country compliance with the core international
standard that prohibits discrimination.
While individual country reports vary, overall quality improved in
the 1990s when embassy labor officers (formerly called attachés)
were given more training and their work was accorded a higher priority
than previously (Compa, 2002, p.14). With an on-the-ground presence,
labor officers can interview key actors directly, place events and indicators
in context, and strive to translate their findings into objective evaluations.
But the reporting in the State Department's annual human rights report
continues to reflect a number of weaknesses. Recently, the State
Department Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy (2000, p. 27) stated:
Many of the 49 Labor Officers in the field engage in labor work on a
part-time basis, so that the resources dedicated to labor issues actually
represent the equivalent of only about 20 to 25 full-time positions. .
. . A number of Labor Officers only spend a small proportion of their time
on labor issues.
The advisory committee also pointed to "antiquated" Internet access,
lack of funds for in-country travel to investigate labor conditions, lack
of support staff for labor officers, and lack of opportunities on a "labor
promotion track" within the State Department's career priorities.
Over the long term there has also been a decline in the number of labor
officer positions. The advisory committee report pointed out that
in 1966 there were 89 full-time labor positions, including 73 at foreign
posts, but by 1997, the number of labor positions at foreign posts had
declined to 33. Between 1998 and 2000, the number of overseas labor
officers increased to 49, but most of these have combined "political/labor"
or "economic/labor" responsibilities. The Advisory Committee on Labor
Diplomacy (2000, p. 37) recommended providing more resources to the International
Labor Affairs Office within the Bureau of Democracy, Labor and Human Rights,
but the trend has been in the opposite direction with staffing at the office
declining since the report was released.
Moreover, labor officers in a U.S. embassy do not act with complete
autonomy. Ambassadors, their deputy chiefs, and other embassy officers
review labor reporting, and sometimes edit drafts to avoid creating an
incident or offending host countries. And when they receive embassy
drafts, the staff of the Country Reports and Asylum Office in the State
Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor reviews them
and initiates a complex negotiation on the final language among themselves,
the Department of Labor, the embassies, and country desk officers at State
Department headquarters. This process has both the advantages and
disadvantages of any reports by committee. Nonetheless, considering
their scope and overall reliability, the chapters of the State Department
human rights report constitute an indispensable starting point for assessing
compliance with core labor standards.
Literature cited:
Compa, L. (2002). Assessing assessments: A survey of efforts
to measure countries' compliance with freedom of association standards.
Paper prepared for National Research Council Workshop on International
Labor Standards: Quality of Information and Measures of Progress.
Available: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/internationallabor/DQworkshop.html
[October 14, 2003.]
Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy. (September, 2000).
A world of decent work: Labor diplomacy for the new century. Report
of the Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy to the Secretary of State
and the President of the United States. Available: http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/labor/acld_report/acld_toc.html
[October 10, 2003.]
From National Research Council, 2004.
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