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34 Comp. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 81 (2012-2013)
The Human Right to Livelihood: Recognizing the Right to Be Human

handle is hein.journals/cllpj34 and id is 89 raw text is: THE HUMAN RIGHT TO LIVELIHOOD: RECOGNIZING THE RIGHT TO BE HUMAN Kamala Sankarant I. INTRODUCTION Long before the human rights discourse on the universality of rights became a commonplace, the ILO had routinely set separate standards for countries it considered different. This exceptionalism formed the basis for certain countries having special provisions in otherwise general Conventions.' The ILO Constitution acknowledged that in the framing of standards, it shall have due regard to those countries in which climatic conditions, the imperfect development of industrial organization, or other special circumstances make the industrial conditions substantially different and shall suggest the modifications, if any, which it considers may be required to meet the case of such countries.2 Conditions of work in the other, the nonmetropolitan countries, outside of Europe and North America were regulated differently, in the sense that the standards were invariably set lower. For instance, in the very first Convention adopted by the ILO, the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention in 1919 (Convention No. 1), British India was permitted to have a sixty hour work week compared to the forty-eight hour week laid down in the Convention, while the Convention did not apply to China, Persia, and Siam and applied with further modifications to certain other countries. The ILO acknowledged colonialism and the nonequal nature of countries; its Constitution had specific provisions to deal with nonmetropolitan countries. This, despite the fact the ILO itself was a product of the push for commons standards and t Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. I have borrowed part of the title of my Article from THE RIGHT TO BE HUMAN (Upendra Baxi ed., 1987). I am grateful for comments received from participants at the Workshop on Precarious Work and Human Rights, and particularly, for the insightful comments and suggestions I received from Judy Fudge and Einat Albin. All errors are mine. 1. E.g., Convention Nos. 1 (1919), 4 (1919), 5 (1919), 6 (1919), 14 (1921), 33 (1933), 41 (1934), 59 (1937), 60 (1937), 77 (1946), 89 (1948), and 90 (1948) had special provisions for India. 2. CONSTITUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORG. Art. 19, § 3 (Apr. 1, 1919) (emphasis added). 3. For instance Article 35 of the Constitution provided for declarations to be made by member states for those nonmetropolitan territories they controlled. Id. Art. 35. 81

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