Toronto, June 5, 2009 – LawFuel.com – Law Newswire Service – Baker & McKenzie announced today that Toronto Partner Kevin Coon has been selected as part of the Tripartite Canadian Delegation to the 98th Session of the United Nations International Labour Conference (“ILC”) taking place June 1 through 18 in Geneva, Switzerland. He will join four other representatives of the Canadian Employer’s Council (“CEC”) on this year’s delegation to the “ILC”.
Coon will participate at the ILC on the Committee developing an international labour standard on HIV/AIDS in the world of work. According to the International Labour Organization (“ILO”), a tripartite United Nations agency, HIV/AIDS has been a global pandemic for 27 years and 33 million people live with HIV. Of the 2.7 million new infections in 2007, 45% were among those aged 14-24. HIV/AIDS has a dramatic impact on the world of work including the infection of healthcare workers and teachers, impact on workers, decrease in productivity and the use of scarce resources in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
In response to the ongoing pandemic, and its impact on the world of work, the Governing Body of the ILO decided that it was necessary to adopt an international labour standard on HIV/AIDS in order to increase the attention devoted to the subject at the national and international level, to promote united action among the key actors on HIV/AIDS and to increase the impact of the ILO code of practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, adopted in 2001.
Founded in 1919, the ILO became the first specialized agency of the United National in 1946. The ILO is devoted to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. It aims to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue in handling work-related issues. Today the ILO helps advance the creation of decent jobs and the kinds of economic and working conditions that give working people and business people a stake in lasting peace, prosperity and progress.
Coon is Head of Baker & McKenzie’s Labour & Employment Law Practice Group in Toronto. He has a commitment to the development of social policy issues related to international labour standards and workplace issues. Coon has served on the Canadian employer delegation to the ILC, serving on the Committee on the Application of International Labour Standards, the Committee reviewing the issues of the Informal Economy, and on the Sectoral Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility.
