ICMC Highlights Dignified Work and Social Justice at 113th International Labour Conference
ICMC joins delegates from the 187 Member States of the International Labour Organization in Geneva on 2-13 June 2025, advocates for decent work and strengthens partnerships amongst Catholic-inspired organizations.
/On 2-13 June 2025, in Geneva, an ICMC delegation joined government, employer, worker, and non-state delegates from the 187 Member States of the International Labour Organization (ILO), at the 113th session of the International Labour Conference.
This ILC session took place during “a period of profound turbulence for multilateral institutions”, noted ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo in his opening address. “It is not only a matter of developing international labor standards, nor solely of their implementation and supervision,” he continued. “It is also the urgent need to ensure fair rules of the game in an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing global economy.”
Established in late 1919, the ILO is one of the oldest UN agencies. It is uniquely the UN’s only tripartite agency, bringing together governments, employers, and workers to set labor standards and develop policy programs to promote decent work around the world. The ILC, which takes place each year in Geneva, sets ILO policy, its work program, and budget, and elects its Governing Body.
ICMC’s delegation comprised ICMC President Miss Christine Nathan, Secretary General Mr. Davide Bernocchi, “The Future of Work – Labour after Laudato si’” (FOWLS) Project Manager Mr. Ignacio Alonso Alasino, and Policy and Communications Officer Ms Oumou Diallo.
‘Dignified Work in a Changing Economy’: ICMC statement to the ILC plenary
On 10 June, ICMC President Christine Nathan addressed the ILC plenary. Her intervention drew on ICMC’s long history of close work with the ILO to promote social justice and dignified work with fair wages, undertaken in close association with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, and through a network of Catholic-inspired organizations around the world, coordinated by ICMC and known as “The Future of Work – Labour after Laudato si’“ Project.
Echoing the core thematic pillars developed by the FOWLS Project since 2019, Ms. Nathan recalled Pope Francis’ message on the “dignity of labor, the necessity of care in all forms of work, and the moral obligation to uphold the rights of workers, migrants, refugees, and the most vulnerable in our societies.” She further highlighted Pope Leo’s call for an urgent ethical reflection on artificial intelligence and its impact on dignified labor, and underscored the important impacts of the platform economy and algorithmic management for digital labor rights.
Ms. Nathan also drew attention to the central importance of social dialogue for “facilitating a just transition from the informal to the formal economy, ensuring social protection and labor standards for all workers, especially migrants and those in vulnerable employment.”
She further highlighted ICMC’s pivotal role in facilitating this dialogue, and its ongoing commitment to “building bridges, through the FOWLS project, between faith-based networks, the ILO, and multilateral institutions, and accompanying the ongoing dialogue between the Holy See, the ILO, and global workers and employers.” She pointed to the upcoming Second World Summit for Social Development, planned for 4-6 November 2025 in Qatar, as a key opportunity to “promote global solidarity and multilateral responses to social inequalities.”
Second Annual Forum of the Global Coalition for Social Justice
On 12 June, the ICMC delegation joined the Annual Forum of the Global Coalition for Social Justice. The Forum was held on the margins of the ILC to provide a space for partners to discuss thematic issues related to social justice, and the challenges and opportunities for advancing the Coalition’s objectives.
The Global Coalition for Social Justice was adopted by the Governing Body of the ILO at its 349th session in November 2023, and 2025 marked the second Annual Forum meeting. “This year’s Forum really emphasized the Coalition’s growing momentum and its concrete achievements,” said Ignacio Alonso Alasino, FOWLS Project Manager at ICMC. “There was also a strong emphasis on the value of dialogue and cooperation, with the ILO Director-General highlighting the importance of multilateralism to promote decent work, social protection, and just transitions in his opening address.”
Since 2023, Coalition partners have together identified 14 Key Interventions, selected to drive transformative, grassroots impact and advance social justice. The Forum’s opening ‘Year in Review’ session showcased progress by Coalition partners in the framework of these interventions during the past year. ICMC and FOWLS Project partners have been particularly active in engaging and advancing three key Coalition interventions: ‘Advocating for social dialogue as a governance tool for promoting social justice’; ‘Empowering Youth for Social Justice’; and ‘AI for Social Impact’.
“Our presence at the Forum helped to reinforce our readiness to support these initiatives,” reflected Alonso Alasino. “We have long advocated that social justice must be at the heart of global policymaking, and ICMC and the FOWLS Project network stand ready to further support the work of the Coalition in this regard.”
Strategizing the Future: Future of Work Project at the ILC
The ILC also provided the FOWLS Project network with an opportunity to meet, exchange, and strategize future actions.
Two key FOWLS meetings held during the ILC program brought together a wide range of Catholic-inspired organizations attending the ILC alongside ICMC: the World Movement of Christian Workers, International Coordination of Young Christians Workers, International Young Christian Workers, the International Christian Union of Business Executives, the Scalabrini International Migration Network, the International Secretariat for Catholic Engineers, Agronomists and Industry Officials, and Kolping International.
Key topics of discussion for the FOWLS network were the contexts of the work of Catholic-inspired Organizations and their 2025 activities, ongoing reform of the United Nations, and reflections on the key themes at the ILC. The first meeting also saw the presentation of ´A Common Social Discernment for Action in the World of Work’, a capacity-building training proposal developed by the FOWLS Project in coordination with the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The training proposal is aimed at a broad and inclusive audience that includes FOWLS Project partners, Bishops Conferences, labor and youth movements, faith-based organizations, and other stakeholders, and individual training modules will be delivered using participatory methods such as questionnaires, workshops, quizzes, and interactive sessions.
“The initiative is designed as a space for participants to identify and analyze labor challenges within local contexts,” explains Alonso Alasino. “It will encourage ethical reflection grounded in Catholic Social Teaching and the sharing of experiences and good practices, and help to build and strengthen partnerships in support of global advocacy. The proposal is framed by the legacy of Pope Francis, the building bridges approach and the teachings of Pope Leo XIII, the ongoing Synodal process, and the findings and methodology of the FOWLS Project.”
The final FOWLS capacity-building initiative will be launched later in 2025.
Rachel Westerby
Independent writer and researcher on migration and refugees.
