> Programme > Safety and Health Summit
Time and Date : 11:30 - 16:00, Sunday, June 29, 2008
Venue : ASEM Hall, COEX Convention Center
For the first time in its history, a Safety and Health Summit will be held on the opening day of the World Congress. Around 50 selected leaders and decision-makers committed to the improvement of occupational safety and health will be invited to reflect on safety and health at work as a basic human right and a means to economic growth and development. Participants will include ministers responsible for occupational safety and health, industry leaders, and high-level representatives from employers' and workers' organizations, as well as leading occupational safety and health and social security specialists from around the world.

The purpose of the Summit will be to stimulate political commitment and demonstrate that good occupational safety and health policies create a win-win situation for employers, workers and society at large. As a result, occupational safety and health should have a more prominent place on national and international agendas.

The co-organizers of the World Congress firmly believe that the human and economic cost of occupational accidents and diseases remains very high and requires concerted action, building on the ILO's and ISSA's invaluable work on safety and health at work and the ILO's Decent Work Agenda. Still the ILO estimates that over two million workers die each year from work-related accidents and diseases, all too frequently, however, occupational safety and health does not get the priority it merits.

The ILO, ISSA and KOSHA are determined to achieve tangible progress towards reducing the number of occupational accidents and diseases. We believe that the Summit and the triennial World Congress on Safety and Health at Work are an ideal forum to achieve this end.

This high-level meeting is designed to attract public and media attention to occupational safety and health issues. It is intended to reach a political consensus on the importance of safe and healthy work, which will be a powerful tool to reduce poverty and promote social justice on the path towards decent work. The Summit will reinforce its conclusions in the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work, which will provide future directions for occupational safety and health.

Organizers: ILO/ISSA/KOSHA