Drafting practice
Conventions
  1. Three Conventions set out similar procedures for amending their annexes.[170] These require that the proposed amendment be placed on the agenda of the Conference and be adopted by a two-thirds majority. The amendment takes effect with regard to Members that are already Parties to the Convention and notify their acceptance. In practice, the amending instrument can take different forms. For example, the amendment to the annex of the Labour Standards (Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention, 1947 (No. 83), takes the form of an amending instrument similar to a Convention, the first Article of which stipulates that the provisions of the amending instrument replace certain provisions in the annex of the original Convention. On the other hand, for no obvious reason, the amendment to the annex of the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121), comprised only a schedule (Schedule I) whose title indicated "amended in 1980". The title of the Convention, together with its number and the original date, was indicated above the schedule title.
  1. For its part, the Seafarers' Identity Documents Convention (Revised), 2003 (No. 185), provides for a hitherto unused amendment procedure which differs from that of other Conventions. Any decision to amend the annexes must be based on the advice of a duly constituted tripartite maritime body of the ILO.[171] On the basis of such advice, the Conference may adopt amendments by a majority of two-thirds of the votes of delegates present at the Conference, which must include at least half of the Members that have ratified the Convention. As regards entry into force of the amendment, Convention No. 185 differs from the three Conventions referred to above in that acceptance of entry into force is implicit in the absence of a written notice to the contrary.[172] The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, also reflects an innovative approach to amendment.
  1. Adoption of a revising Convention or of a Protocol may also be used where there is no specific procedure for amending annexes. For example, the Protocol of 1996 to the Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 147), was adopted with a view to extending the list of Conventions included in the annex of that Convention.
  1. Lastly, certain Conventions concerning social security, which include the international standard classification of all economic activities adopted by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) in their annexes, do not provide for amendments to the annex but make use of an open reference allowing any changes made by ECOSOC to that classification to be taken into account. For example, the provision in each Convention referring to the annex states that any further amendments to the ECOSOC schedule must be taken into account when it is used for the purpose of applying the Convention.[173]
[170] See C83, Article 5 (1); C97, Article 22; and C121, Article 31.
[171] See C185, Article 8 (1).
[172] See C185, Article 8 (2).
[173] See C102, Article 65 (7) and 66 (5); C121, Article 19 (7) and 20 (5); C128, Article 26 (7) and 27 (5); C130, Article 22 (7) and 23 (5).