Statement of
Principles
The West Belfast Economic Forum is in agreement with article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948:
- Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
- Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
- Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring her/himself and family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
- Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his/her interests
And furthermore accepts the terms of the International Labour Organisation's Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958:
- that discrimination constitutes violation of rights enunciated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
- and that the term 'discrimination' includes any distinction, exclusion or preference on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction
or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of
opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation.
And agrees with the section of the European Social Charter 1961 which calls on the contracting parties
- to accept as one of their primary aims and
responsibilities the achievement and maintenance of as high and stable a level of employment as possible, with a view to the attainment of full employment. (Article 1)
