"International labour standards are legal instruments drawn up by the ILO's constituents (governments, employers and workers) and setting out basic principles and rights at work. They are either conventions, which are legally binding international treaties that may be ratified by member states, or
recommendations, which serve as non-binding guidelines. In many cases, a convention lays down the basic principles to be implemented by ratifying countries, while a related
recommendation supplements the convention by providing more detailed guidelines on how it could be applied.
Recommendations can also be autonomous, i.e. not linked to any convention."
(International Labour Organization (ILO),
Conventions and Recommendations, visited 2010-10-13)