Until 1924, the reports submitted by Governments were communicated to the ILC, first all in full and later in a summarized form, in the Report which the Director of the Office submitted to the Conference (...) It was soon found that it was not possible by this method to make the maximum use of the means of mutual supervision of the application of Conventions afforded by the then Article 408 (current article 22). Recognition of this gave rise to the need for specific machinery to undertake such an examination.
Resolution concerning the methods by which the Conference can make use of the reports submitted under Article 408 of the Treaty of Versailles, submitted by the Committee on Article 408.
In 1926, the 8th Session of the ILC, therefore, adopted a resolution establishing an annual Conference Committee (subsequently called the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards) and asked the Governing Body to appoint a technical committee (subsequently called the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations). The Committee of Experts was created at the same time as the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards. The two Committees would become the pillars of ILO’s supervisory system.
The Committee of Experts met at the International Labour Office on 2 May 1927.
The Committee of Experts was appointed to examine the annual reports made under Article 408. According to the Report of the Director General of the 10th Session of the ILC "the Committee has endeavoured to confine its deliberations within the limits of the powers conferred upon it. Nevertheless, in the course of its discussions, the Committee has been led to recognise that the utilisation of the information contained in the reports rendered under Article 408 could be understood in a narrower or a wider sense, and that, in order to fulfill the intentions of the Governing Body and of the Conference in the direction of promoting the application of Conventions in the largest possible measure by the States which have ratified them, it might feel ; itself bound to make observations or to consider suggestions which might appear to go beyond the bounds of its jurisdiction".
"In 1930, the Committee adopted a new method of examining the annual reports in order to ensure that its work should be performed with the greatest possible thoroughness. It devoted still closer attention to the effective application of Conventions, as distinct from the mere adoption of legislative enactments, and recommended that in future information should be requested on the interpretation by courts of law or other courts of legal provisions affecting the application of Conventions. By 9 April 1931 the Office had received 336 reports out of the 392 which should have been sent in".
"The practice now adopted of referring numerically to the articles of the Constitution of the Organisation rather than to the articles of the Peace Treaties has involved the abandonment of the title Committee on Article 408. This year the Conference Committee was for the first time entitled the Committee on the application of Conventions, and it would appear advisable similarly to call the Committee of Experts in future the Committee of Experts on the application of Conventions".
"Under Article 22 each Member undertook to make an annual report to the International Labour Office (and not to the Conference) on the measures which it had taken to give effect to the Conventions to which it was a party. (...) Article 22 stated that the Director was to lay a summary of the reports—and not the reports themselves—before the next meeting of the Conference. It was on the basis of this article that the Committee of Experts on the application of Conventions had been set up and the competence of the Governing Body to consider the measures taken to give effect to Conventions thus affirmed".
The title of the CEACR has varied over the years. From 1936 to 1948, it was know as the "Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions". Since 20 April 1948, its title has been the "Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations"
The 29th Session of the ILC (Montreal, 1946), working on the basis of the delegation’s reports, adopted a new instrument to amend the ILO Constitution on 9 October 1946. That instrument entered into force on 20 April 1948. The constitutional review led to changes in the supervisory system for international labour standards, specifically in the procedure for examining reports submitted under articles 19, 22. and 35.
