Wrapping up their annual meeting in Geneva, members of the International Labour Organisation agreed on the need to “adopt standards on violence and harassment in the world of work”.
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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND –
The UN’s labour body agreed on June 8 Friday to draft an international treaty to protect workers from sexual harassment and violence, as the #Metoo movement continues to reverberate and shame perpetrators around the world.
At the end of the negotiations, all three parties agreed the future instrument should be a convention, supplemented by a recommendation.
The International Labour Organization (ILO), is a tripartite structure made up of government, employer and worker representatives, which groups 187 member states along with labour unions and representatives of leading employers, agreed that the treaty would be debated and voted on at their 2019 annual conference.
During the conference, the representatives of the IDWF highlighted that domestic workers worked behind closed doors and high walls, a type of isolation that placed them at risk of daily abuse. Domestic workers had nowhere to run, lacked access to support, protection, their rights and often had no identity. A strong Convention and Recommendation would give domestic workers hope and a voice, and would supplement the rights and freedom they had gained through the adoption of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189).
Sources and references:
- UN labour body to draft sexual harassment treaty | Agence France-Presse
- Stopping Violence at Work: A Victory, and a Call to Action | Sarah Newell
- World moves a step closer to ending violence and harassment at work | CARE
- Standard Setting Committee: violence and harassment in the world of work | ILO
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