International Obligations of African States in the ILO

The African continent includes 54 independent States, all of which are members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). However, each of these countries has its own volume of accepted international obligations within the framework of ILO. The high population of Africa (approximately 1.4 billion people) indicates the need for research issues related to ensuring human rights, including in the field of labour, in this territory. Purpose: to gain an understanding of the extent of international commitments undertaken by African States within the ILO. Methods: to achieve this goal, general and specific methods of scientific research are used, which include methods of formal logic, theoretical and empirical cognition, comparative law, etc. Results: half of the fundamental ILO conventions have been ratified by 54 African States, while the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, which is also a fundamental instrument, has been ratified by only 14 African States. Among the priority conventions, there are none that have been ratified by all African States, and four of them have not accepted international obligations under any of these instruments. However, five African States have ratified all the priority ILO conventions. The only African State that has ratified all the fundamental instruments, as well as all the priority conventions, is Madagascar. Djibouti has the highest number of ratifications of legally binding documents adopted within the ILO, and Zanzibar, which is part of Tanzania but has individual membership in the ILO, has the lowest number of ratifications.