Observation on submission to competent authorities (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Brunei Darussalam

Failure to submit. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government to the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards in June 2024, indicating that it has actively shared information on previously adopted international labour standards with relevant government agencies for their policy consideration and potential ratification. The Government indicates that, when an instrument is adopted by the Conference, it undergoes an initial review by the Labour Department and the Ministry of Home Affairs, and subsequently, the instrument is shared with the relevant ministries. These government agencies assess and determine the appropriate timeline to ratify ILO Conventions and implement the relevant obligations domestically. The Government adds that, as part of this process, the Quality Apprenticeships Recommendation, 2023 (No. 208), adopted by the Conference at its 111th Session, was circulated for policy consideration and its potential implementation.

Against this background, the Committee emphasizes that the obligation of ILO Member States to submit the instruments adopted by the Conference to the competent authorities does not imply any obligation to propose the ratification or application of the instruments in question, or to take any other specific action. Pursuant to article 19 of the ILO Constitution, Member States have complete freedom as to the nature of the proposals to be made, if any, when submitting the instruments (Memorandum concerning the obligation to submit Conventions and Recommendations to the competent authorities, adopted by the Governing Body in 2005, Part III(b)). Furthermore, the Committee recalls that, for the purposes of article 19 of the ILO Constitution, discussion in a deliberative assembly – or at a minimum transmission to a deliberative assembly of information concerning the instruments adopted by the International Labour Conference – is an essential component of the constitutional obligation to submit (2005 Memorandum, Part II(c)). The obligation to submit is twofold: (1) to encourage ratification or application of instruments adopted by the Conference through submission to the competent authority empowered to consider ratification; and (2) to bring the instruments adopted by the Conference to the knowledge of the public through their submission to a parliamentary or deliberative body (2005 Memorandum, Part I(a) and (c)). In this context, the Committee notes that the Government restates that it recognizes the need to identify the appropriate mechanisms and platforms at the national level to fulfill the obligation of submission. The Committee welcomes the fact that in February 2024 the Government received an ILO technical assistance mission in respect of this obligation, among other matters, and has since been engaging with the Office with a view to identifying the most appropriate forum, taking into account the national circumstances, to give effect to its constitutional obligation of submission, established in article 19 of the ILO Constitution. The Committee trusts that with the technical assistance of the Office, the Government will be in a position to identify the national authority or authorities best suited to give effect to the obligations assumed under the ILO Constitution and requests the Government to keep it informed of any developments in this respect.

With regard to the instruments the submission of which is still pending, the Committee once again firmly urges the Government to provide information on the submission to the competent national authorities, within the meaning of article 19(5) and (6) of the ILO Constitution, of the 12 instruments adopted by the Conference at its 96th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 103rd, 104th, 106th and 108th Sessions (2007–19).It also requests the Government to provide information on the submission of the Safe and Healthy Working Environment (Consequential Amendments) Convention (No. 191) and Recommendation (No. 207), 2023, and the Quality Apprenticeships Recommendation, 2023 (No. 208), adopted by the Conference at its 111th Session.