11/07/2023 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development | Parliamentary Network for a Healthy Environment
“Decent work, building a sustainable future” will be the theme of a side-event on Friday 14th July 2023, taking place on the margins of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Organised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the event will bring together a number of PACE members who have prepared reports in this area, as well as officials from other international organisations and NGOs dealing with work and labour rights.
Topics to be discussed include which national laws need to change to achieve decent work for all; better partnerships between governments, parliaments and civil society towards this goal; and strengthening corporate social responsibility.
Participants will also look at the impact of Covid and AI on the world of work, labour rights in the app-based “gig economy”, the development of so-called “eco-social contracts”, and overall progress towards realising the UN’s Social Development Goal 8 on decent work for all.
Panellists include:
Selin Sayek Böke (Türkiye, SOC), PACE Rapporteur on “The future of work is here: revisiting labour rights”;
Stefan Schennach (Austria, SOC), PACE Rapporteur on “Artificial intelligence and labour markets: friend or foe?”;
Andrej Hunko (Germany, UEL), PACE Rapporteur on “Overcoming the socio-economic crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic”;
Eka Sepashvili (Georgia, EC/DA), PACE Rapporteur on “Children in the world of work: eradicating harmful child labour”;
Matthieu Cognac, Senior Multilateral Co-operation Specialist and Officer in Charge of the ILO’s New York Office for the United Nations;
Lena Simet, PhD, Senior Researcher on Poverty and Inequality, Economic Justice and Rights Division, Human Rights Watch.
The event will be moderated by George Katrougalos (Greece, UEL), PACE member and former Minister of Labour of Greece.
The Parliamentary Assembly brings together parliamentarians from the 46 nations of the Council of Europe, which has co-operated formally with the UN since 1951, and has held observer status with the UN General Assembly since 1989.
The event takes place from 8 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. on Friday 14 July 2023 in Conference Room 3 of the UN Headquarters, New York, and is open to everyone having access to the UN building.