BAKU (Trend) — The delegation of Uzbekistan held a meeting with Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Guy Ryder in Geneva, the Uzbek Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations reported today.

“Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Tanzila Narbaeva and the country’s LaboUr and Employment Minister Aziz Abduhakimov informed Ryder about the reforms being carried out in Uzbekistan in the sphere of social and economic development and ensuring decent employment of the country’s population”, the report says.

Ryder thanked the Uzbek authorities for ratifying the ILO’s Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention. He expressed hope that work on studying the issue of other ILO conventions’ compliance with the Uzbek national legislation will continue.

The Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (1948) N° 87 is an International Labour Organization Convention, and one of eight conventions that form the core of international labour law, as interpreted by the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Ryder stressed the need to expand cooperation between the ILO and Uzbekistan by including the issues of further improvement of the legal framework, ensuring employment, including among women, as well as labor and social protection of the population in the agenda, and called on the Uzbek side to further develop the cooperation.

Earlier this year, Uzbekistan and the ILO signed a memorandum of understanding on the implementation of the Decent Work Country Program (DWCP) in 2017-2020. Measures to improve the Uzbek national labour legislation, raising public awareness on labour rights were successfully implemented within the DWCP in 2014-2016.