Blog by Maria Fornella-Oehninger, SI United Nations Representative in New York and Co-chair of the NGO Committee on Social Development.
As part of the Global Action Week, 21-29 June 2021, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is promoting the ratification of the Convention Concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (C190).
At the ILO conference in June 2019, delegates representing the tripartite structure of this organisation (governments, workers, and employers) adopted the first legally binding international standard concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. The Convention 190, which enters into force this month of June 2021, defines the meaning of violence and harassment, prominently includes gender-based violence and harassment, and establishes the Right of Everyone to be protected under its principles: workers as well as interns, volunteers, and job seekers, and it applies equally to those working in the private and public sectors, in the formal and informal economy.
After this historic event, a long process of ratification by national parliaments ensued, which is still going on today. Uruguay and Fiji were the first to ratify it (June 2020), followed by Namibia, Argentina, Somalia, and Ecuador.
Civil society has been proactive in the process at every step of the way, from the preliminary discussions at the ILO, where the International Transport Federation women delegation played an extraordinarily strong role insisting on the inclusion of language critical to protect transport female workers, to the ongoing campaign for ratification by the United Nations NGO Coalition to End Violence and Harassment in the World of Work.
Under the leadership of its chair, Anita Thomas, the NGO Coalition obtained the endorsement of 1155 NGOs who signed a letter encouraging member states to ratify ILO C-190 and is planning a major event on its entering into force at the end of this month.
Read the full letter from the NGO Coalition to Member States HERE.
The coalition is formed by the four heads of UN NGOs Substantive Committees of the Conference of NGOs (CoNGO), namely, Financing for Development, Status of Women, Social Development and Migration – in partnership with the committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons.
As a co-chair of the Committee on Social Development, it is my privilege to represent Soroptimist International in this extremely important advocacy work for the ratification of such a historic document.
You can register for events during the ILO’s Global Action Week HERE.
Check out more SI blogs reporting on the ILO’s work HERE.