Jun 26, 2024
Five years after its adoption by the International Labor Organization (ILO)—a specialized agency of the United Nations—the first global binding treaty to address gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the world of work is yielding tangible results, addressing the fear of harassment and violence many workers face every day at work because of their gender.
The Violence and Harassment Convention, C190, calls on governments, employers and unions to work together to confront the root causes of GBVH, including multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, gender stereotypes and unequal gender-based power relationships.
Women trade unionists and feminist activists campaigned for more than a decade to make the adoption of C190 possible, led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Solidarity Center and other labor allies. Since C190’s adoption by governments, employers and worker representatives one year ago, unions have conducted extensive education and awareness training among members, a process that has mobilized members to confront GBVH at their workplaces through collective bargaining.
A June 20 virtual celebration, co-sponsored by the Solidarity Center, brought together 361 worker and women’s rights activists from around the world to report progress, discuss their plans to ensure C190 ratification and implementation, and envision the changes necessary to end GBVH in the world of work. The convention has been ratified by 44 countries.
THE POWER OF C190
C190 has been an “extremely valuable tool that legitimized the global problem of GBVH,” said Anannya Bhattacharjee, Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) international coordinator, including the Dindigul Agreement, said at the event. Signed with three global brands, the agreement is the first of its kind to address GBVH in the workplace in Asia and came about following the widely publicized rape and murder of a 20-year old woman garment worker by her supervisor following months of harassment.
One of the most important successes of a decade-long fight for adoption, ratification and implementation of C190 is its contribution to women’s leadership, said Fulya Pinar Ozcan, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Women’s Committee member and Women’s Committee at Öz İplik-İş-Turkiye president. ITUC represents 200 million workers in 168 countries.
“I want you to imagine waking up every morning in fear of going to work, knowing that you might face harassment or violence just because of your gender,” she said. “And now imagine a world where this fear doesn’t exist, where every woman feels safe, respected and valued.”
In this context, C190 is both a path to freedom from fear and a transformative opportunity to empower women to rise as leaders during the development of the C190 campaign, said Ozcan.
“C190 is more than a legal instrument. It is a beacon of hope,” she said.
Because its constitution grants constitutional status to all UN conventions, Mexico’s government could begin implementing C190 immediately, said Marta Ferreyra, Institute for Women in Mexico (INMUJERES) National Policy of Equality and Rights of Women director general.
And Christy Hoffman, UNI global union general secretary, said that unions are now integrating C190 text in agreements, among them UNI’s global agreement with French telephone company Orange, and many more national and local collective bargaining agreements point toward C190 descriptions of violence and harassment and remedies.
MORE WORK TO BE DONE
Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, U.S. ambassador-at-large for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, told the audience that, “Violence and sexual harassment anywhere is a gross human rights violation and it must stop.”
Reporting back from this month’s ILO International Labor Conference event promoting decent work for care workers, International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) General Secretary Adriana Paz Ramirez outlined increased GBVH risks for domestic workers who are providing child and elder care in private homes. Risks are especially high for migrant women who are legally tied to a single employer, such as in Gulf countries under the kafala system.
Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery said addressing intersectionality in the uneven effects of GBVH in the world of work is key. He said, as addressed in his 2022 report on contemporary forms of slavery, it is clear that Indigenous, minority and migrant workers are “particularly at risk of abuse.”
Lopa Banerjee, UN Women Civil Society division director, said that governments’ implementation of all normative frameworks that support gender equality, including C190, are key, as is adequate resourcing of women’s feminist and labor justice movements and institutions.
“This is a moment to really strengthen the feminist movement–including the gender justice and labor justice movements,” she said.
A power shift sufficient to end GBVH in the world of work is predicated on recognition that the economy is political, said Ghada Abdel Tawab, Ford Foundation Future of Work(ers) International senior program officer. “Organizing and cross-movement building across labor and gender have been key in shifting power back to the worker,” she said, adding that “the state, the market and labor are intertwined.”
Fatime Christiane Ndiaye, ILO senior gender specialist and Decent Work Team-Dakar member; and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls member and National Federation of Women Lawyers Africa regional vice president.
Event co-sponsors included AFWA, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR), Global Labor Justice (GLJ), Human Rights Watch, IDWF, ITUC, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), Solidarity Center and UNI Global Union.
The celebration was moderated by human rights journalist for The Guardian Annie Kelly and Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR) Transnational Lead Krishanti Dharmaraj, both of whom pointed to UN Women’s Beijing +30 (2025) gathering as a key opportunity for moving forward the expansion of women’s rights, including through the eradication of GBVH in the world of work.
Learn more about Solidarity Center and GBVH in the world of work here.
Mar 10, 2023
To address obstacles preventing elimination of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the world of work, union women and their allies marked International Women’s Day with a public event advocating for ratification of UN International Labor Organization Convention 190 (C190).
Women in Kyrgyzstan are routinely subjected to various forms of discrimination—including unequal pay and lack of opportunities for career advancement—and harassment that includes sexual harassment, verbal abuse and even mockery, said Textile and Light Industry Trade Union Chairman Almash Zharkynbaeva.
“[GBVH] harms women’s mental health and well-being, leading to long-term emotional and psychological trauma,” says Zharkynbaeva.
The event was convened to recognize publication of a March 2 ratification motion that moved the draft law to parliament and, on March 8 International Women’s Day, opened the draft law to public comment on Kyrgyzstan’s draft law public discussion portal.
Publication of the draft law represents a three-year Solidarity Center campaign to educate government officials, labor inspectors, unions and the public on the use of C190 to end violence and harassment in the world of work. The Solidarity Center secured commitments from trade unions and parliamentarians to support the ratification process, advised on language now included in three union bargaining agreements to protect workers from violence and harassment, and coordinated a sectoral union campaign appealing to the Ministry of Labor for ratification of C190.
The convention is a powerful tool to combat discrimination and harassment in the world of work, says Eldiyar Karachalov, chair of the Republican Committee of the Trade Union of Construction and Building Materials Workers, but significant progress will require unwavering commitment from employers, workers and the government.
C190 was adopted during the ILO’s annual meeting in Geneva in 2019 following a decade-long campaign by women trade unionists and feminist activists, led by the International Trade Union Confederation, the Solidarity Center and other labor allies. Since 2019, 25 countries have ratified the convention, of which ten have begun enforcement.
Hear more about the global campaign to end GBVH in the world of work.
Nov 16, 2022
For more than 10 years, union women who work at factories, on farms, in restaurants, taxis and offices campaigned for an international treaty to end gender-based violence at work. In 2019, they achieved a huge success when the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted Convention 190 to end violence and harassment at work.
Authors of a new book share these women’s stories on the latest Solidarity Center Podcast and describe the powerful movement they created collaborating with human rights, feminist, disability rights and other organizations around the world.
“We wanted to document this because there are such myths and stereotypes about who’s capable of doing this,” co-author Robin Runge tells podcast host and Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau.
“These are garment workers, domestic workers, agricultural workers from all over the world, and have been told their whole lives, ‘Well, you can’t do that. You can’t negotiate a global treaty.’ It’s absolutely false.”
Along with Runge and Jane Pillinger, co-authors of “Stopping Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at Work: The Campaign for an ILO Convention,” the episode highlights South African union activist Brenda Modise, who describes her experiences on the front lines of the campaign
“The thing about this convention is that it brings women together across the world, irrespective of your age, irrespective of your culture, irrespective of all the things. It doesn’t matter whether you speak English, you speak Portuguese, you speak French, it brings us together. As soon as you say C190, it brings women together and it makes a force,” says Modise.
“One of our main conclusions is that really remarkable things happen when women stand in their own power,” said Pillinger.
Adds Runge: “Only through collective action with freedom of association and collective bargaining is it really possible to truly prevent and eradicate gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work.”
Listen to this episode and all Solidarity Center episodes here or at Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you subscribe to your favorite podcasts.
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Jun 22, 2022
Demanding the ratification of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers, leaders and members of the National Domestic Women Workers Union (NDWWU) on June 16, 2022, rallied in front of the National Press Club in Bangladesh to mark International Domestic Workers Day.
They also demanded the ratification of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on violence and harassment in the world of work (ILO C190). A Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS) report says 12 domestic workers were raped in 2020.
Although Bangladesh presided over the 100th session of the International Labor Conference and voted for ILO C189, the country’s domestic workers still are not protected by the global treaty because the government has yet to ratify it.
When Sitara Begum, 60, approached law enforcement after being harassed at her job as a domestic worker they did not assist her, and she was forced to flee from her employer. “In 22 years of working as a house help, I had to endure many such incidents. When does our agony stop?” she asks.
Domestic worker Rehana Akter Mita, 37, her family’s only breadwinner, earns $96.59 per month, which does not cover living expenses. Mita often takes loans from relatives to support her son’s education and husband’s medical costs.
The 2006 Bangladesh Labor Act does not recognize domestic worker rights. Domestic workers and their unions are urging the government to ratify ILO C189, a global treaty ensuring domestic workers their rights on the job.
Photos: Solidarity Center/Amir Hasan Shahriar
Feb 7, 2022
Unions in Sri Lanka are urging the government to follow through with its promise to ratify a global treaty to end gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work by March 2022.
The Sri Lanka Trade Union Movement for the Ratification of ILO C190 in Sri Lanka, comprised of 17 trade union leaders from the public and private sectors, held a press conference in recent days to call out the government for deliberately delaying the ratification process.
International Labor Organization Convention 190 (C190) is the first international treaty that addresses violence and harassment at work. The ILO adopted it in 2019 during its annual meeting in Geneva.
“There is no point in raising your hand in Geneva, only to lower your hand in Sri Lanka,” Saman Rathnapriya, chairman of the Government Nursing Officers Association said at the press conference.
“Create a proper working environment in the country. A conducive working environment does not exist in this country.”
Union leaders noted that Sri Lanka’s Labor Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva had promised ratification by March 2022 during a March 2021 Women’s Day event organized by the National Union of Seafarers Sri Lanka (NUSS), and in numerous other public venues.
Ten countries have ratified the convention.