The 2009 edition of World Bank's highest-circulation publication, Doing Business, which the bank launched earlier this month in Washington, continues the bank's tradition of applauding countries that exploit their workforce and ignore international labour and other human rights standards.
In the most amazing example, the bank has lauded Belarus for its top-ranking 'Employing Workers' indicator, even though the ILO has condemned the authoritarian regime's curtailing of workers' rights as a violation of Core Labour Standards.
The European Union has withdrawn trade preferences for Belarus because of its ILO violations, yet the World Bank has given Belarus a gold star for the very things that the European Union and the ILO have condemned. How the bank can suggest Belarus is a good place to do business when the country is on the outs with the EU is not explained.
The bank's annual Doing Business report has had a long standing habit of giving the best 'Employing Workers' ratings to countries having the lowest level of mandated workers' rights and social protection.
Two of the top four countries listed by the bank as being the best places in the world for labour issues have not ratified a single one of the eight Core ILO labour rights conventions, while another has ratified only two out of the eight core conventions.
According to the bank, countries with the lowest level of workers' protection have what the bank considers the best labour regulations. The same report lauds countries for being good 'reformers' for, in the bank's view, making it easier for companies to do business there.
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