SWITZERLAND
The Geneva-based UN agency International Labor Organization (ILO) has said that it would not renew controversial funding from tobacco companies for expiring charitable programs but refrained from saying it would cut ties to the tobacco industry altogether.
ILO said its governing body had decided on an “integrated strategy” towards the issue of whether it should maintain its relationship to the tobacco industry, but acknowledged that the strategy “requires further development.”
Long under fire for receiving funding from tobacco companies, the UN labor agency has used the funding to help improve the working conditions of some 60 million people involved in tobacco growing and production worldwide.
Over the past decade, ILO received around US$15 million from some tobacco companies towards two “charitable partnerships” aimed at reducing child labor in tobacco fields across a range of countries.
Prior to this latest announcement, ILO’s governing body has debated the issue and postponed a decision three times in the past year and a half.
The agency resolved “to continue the ongoing project-based efforts to eliminate child labor using regular budget supplementary account funds and other public funds in the short term.”