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2021 Promises Better Protection for Women From Violence, Harassment at Work

Webinar to Highlight Legal Advances and Campaigns From Around the World

Marcelina Bautista, leader of Centro de Apoyo y Capacitación para Empleadas del Hogar, a domestic workers organization, celebrates the beginning of a pilot program extending access to social security and healthcare benefits for domestic workers, Mexico City, Mexico.  © 2019 El Universal/RCC Agency/GDA via AP

Next year promises exciting progress in the fight against gender-based violence and harassment at work.

On November 16, Human Rights Watch is hosting a virtual event on taking the #MeToo movement forward and taking action for dignity and safety at work. The event will feature leaders in the fight to end gender-based violence at work, in civil society, and in government. 

We are hosting the event together with ABAAD, the Global 16 Days Campaign, the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC),

Progress to-date has been hard-fought and long in the making. Despite pockets of change, gender-based violence and harassment at work remain all too commonplace, and remedying it can feel out of reach.

Leaders at the event will detail their work to:

  • Promote ratification and implementation of a landmark global treaty to prevent and respond to violence and harassment at work, the 2019 International Labor Organization (ILO) Violence and Harassment Convention,
  • Pioneer models for raising awareness, improving complaints channels, and holding perpetrators to account
  • Leverage the Generation Equality Forum, marking the 25th anniversary of the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women, to push countries to ratify the treaty and translate it into action.

Manuela Tomei, the ILO’s director on Conditions of Work and Equality, will explain why the treaty is a significant legal advance, and Ambassador Delphine O, secretary-general of the Generation Equality Forum, will discuss how the this global platform can promote accelerated government and business action. Marie Clarke Walker from the Canadian Labour Congress and the ITUC will highlight concrete examples of impact globally.

Carmen Britez from the IDWF will discuss campaign successes in Argentina; Alice Bordaçarre from ActionAid France and Ludovica Anedda from CARE France will share how a diverse coalition of trade unions and non-govermental organizations is working for reforms in France; and Nandita Bhatt from Martha Farrell Foundation will analyze implementation of India’s sexual harassment law. Eunice Musiime from Akina Mama wa Afrika will share examples of innovations to combat sexual harassment in Uganda’s flower farms, and Ghida Anani, from ABAAD in Lebanon, will talk about how to prioritize gender-based violence amidst the global pandemic as well as economic and political uncertainty.

Please join us and register here.

Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world.

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