ILO NATLEX
ETI Resources: Country Information
On this page:
- Overview
- About the ILO
- How information is collected
- Key strengths
- Less strong on…
- Countries covered
- How to access
Overview
The ILO maintains NATLEX, an extensive on-line database containing abstracts and references to over 55,000 national labour, social security and related human rights laws in more than 170 countries and territories. Full texts are provided for 560 laws, and links to relevant electronic sources are provided for some others. It is most useful for accessing the text of a law that you have already identified from other sources.
About the ILO
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the UN specialised agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognised human and labour rights. It formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights; provides technical assistance in related areas; and supports the development of independent employers' and workers' organisations. Within the UN system, the ILO has a unique tripartite structure with workers and employers participating as equal partners with governments in the work of its governing organs. The standards contained in the ETI Base Code reflect the most relevant ILO Conventions and Recommendations.
See www.ilo.org for further information.
How information is collected
NATLEX is maintained by the ILO’s International Labour Standards Department, with support from a network of collaborators and editors. The ILO emphasises that they “continue to face challenges in receiving legal information in a complete and timely manner from a number of countries” and that “there can therefore be some inaccuracies in the information in NATLEX”. Accordingly, the database is intended to serve as a “guide to national labour legislation, and does not pretend to be an exhaustive or authoritative source of legal information”.
Key strengths
- Extensive coverage of national labour laws. Although as noted above the database is not exhaustive, with coverage of 55,000 laws in more than 170 countries and territories it is one of the most comprehensive databases of national labour legislation available publicly and for free.
- Useful when you want to find the full text of a relevant law. Where full texts are not included, full bibliographical information is provided.
Less strong on…
- Full texts of laws, or links to full texts, are only provided for a minority of the laws referenced in the database.
- The database does not provide any type of summary or overview of labour law by country. Each record includes an abstract of the law in question, but this only provides information on what issues are covered, not on what the law actually says.
- Not all records and laws included are available in English. Many are provided in Spanish or French only.
Countries covered
The countries covered by the NATLEX database series is shown on our generic table of availability by country/provider. If you have already consulted this, please proceed to the next section (below)...
How to access
The database can be accessed for free from the ILO Website: www.ilo.org. From the home page, choose “ILO Library” from the menu on the right hand side, then choose “Electronic resources: ILO databases”. From the next page, selecting “NATLEX” from the bottom of the right hand column takes you to the NATLEX home page.
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