The Simón Rodríguez Convention is the Andean Community’s Forum for the Discussion and Coordination of and Participation in social and labor matters and is part of the Andean Integration System (SAI). Representatives of the Advisory Council of Labor Ministers and of the Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils participate equally as to number and conditions in the work of this Convention.
 

1. Propose and discuss social and labor initiatives that would constitute an effective input for the implementation of the subregion’s Social Agenda and contribute to the activities of the Andean Integration System’s (SAI) other bodies.

2. Define and coordinate Community policies for promoting employment, labor education and training, occupational health and safety, and labor migration, as well as any other matters the Member Countries may decide upon; and

3. Propose and design cooperation and coordination actions among the Member Countries with regard to Andean social and labor matters.   
 

The Convention has three main bodies:

The Conference, the Convention’s supreme body, adopts its Recommendations by consensus.  It is made up of the Labor Ministers of the Andean Community Member Countries and the Coordinators of the National Chapters of the Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils.    

The Specialized Working Committees, which are created by decision of the Conference and furnish advisory assistance to the Convention.  They are tripartite, consisting of representatives appointed by the Labor Ministries and by the Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils.   

The Technical Secretariat, which is the Simón Rodríguez Convention’s coordination and support body.   The Andean Community General Secretariat performs the functions of Technical Secretariat of the Convention.  Even so, the Conference may ask the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers to consider the desirability of establishing the Convention’s permanent headquarters in Quito, Ecuador.

The Protocol of Substitution of the Simón Rodríguez Convention will come into effect when all of the Member Countries deposit their Instruments of Ratification with the Andean Community General Secretariat.   

After it becomes effective, the Simón Rodríguez Convention will be open to the adherence of any other country that becomes an Associate Member of the Andean Community. 

The countries deposited their Instruments of Ratification of the Simón Rodríguez Convention with the Andean Community General Secretariat on the following dates:

Peru: December 5, 2001.

Ecuador: April 14, 2003.

Bolivia: December 2, 2004.

Venezuela: May 2, 2005.

Colombia: still pending.

The three sectors that will be parties to the Simón Rodríguez Convention (Advisory Council of Labor Ministers and Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils) have been working hard on the preparations to put the Convention mechanisms into full operation once all of the Instruments of Ratification of the Protocol of Substitution of the Convention have been deposited.   

In December 2002, the Chair of the Advisory Council of Labor Ministers and the Chairs of the Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils signed the Tripartite Framework Agreement for the creation of the Andean Labor Observatory. As stated in that Framework Agreement, the Andean Labor Observatory (OLA) will be the new Simón Rodríguez Convention’s principal instrument for analyzing, defining and following-up on Community social and labor policies.   

The Andean Labor Observatory Pilot Plan is in operation today and is referred to on the website of the Advisory Council of Andean Community Labor Ministers at: http://www.comunidadandina.org/camtandinos

The Protocol of Substitution of the Simón Rodríguez Convention was signed by the Foreign Ministers of the Andean Community Member Countries on July 23, 2001 in Valencia, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after more than two years of intense efforts by the Advisory Council of Andean Community Labor Ministers to draw up the pertinent technical project.  That Council is known to have been given special instructions to that effect by the Andean Council of Presidents meeting in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in May 1999.

As its name indicates, this Protocol is a substitution for the texts of the original Convention signed in 1973, together with its amendment of 1976.  It is a known fact that at that time the Simón Rodríguez Convention operated as a forum for the Andean Labor Ministers exclusively.    

The current Protocol of Substitution converts the Simón Rodríguez Convention into a privileged vehicle for the convergence and harmonization of the interests of the three sectors involved in social and labor issues in the Andean integration process –in other words, the Advisory Council of Labor Ministers and the Andean Business and Labor Advisory Councils.