Adopted in June 2019, C190 is the first ever international labour convention which sets a clear standard to end violence and harassment at work. It leaves no one behind – interns, volunteers, job seekers, apprentices – EVERY WORK is recognised as a work and protected from violence and harassment.
Brutality, violence and harassment against women in the workplace is not an incidental outcome of neoliberalism. It is an intentional tool used to allow workers’ labour to be devalued and exploited. Systemic issues conceal the problem of violence and harassment which make the workplace become such a horror. The absence of a clear and credible tool to accurately measure violence in the workplace, the precarity of work and job scarcity, lack of political will, public apathy towards gender based violence violence, and a culture of silence and impunity around it contribute to a race to the bottom when it comes to working conditions.
Throughout APWLD’s journey of conducting Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR), as well as many other training on feminist advocacy and organising, we have been inspired by behemoths in activism. Women have their body autonomy and freedom to assert themselves and refuse to tolerate any form of violence. They cultivate their agency and speak up against violence. That is the politics of their everyday life.
Today, we stand with these giants, along with unionists, activists and workers calling to #RatifyC190, demanding that countries be held accountable for the deliberate violence permitted and maintained through national legal and economic systems.
According to C190, violence and harassment includes “a range of unacceptable behaviours and practices that aim at, result in or are likely to result in physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm.”
As Daisy Arago of APWLD member organisation Centre for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), Philippines explains in Episode 1 of our podcast on Our starting point: How Gender-Based Violence adversely affects women’s access to decent work and labour rights, patriarchy exploits women and coupled with neoliberalism produces a more sinister outcome so that women workers are relegated to the most exploitative workspaces. In the Asia and the Pacific region, this translates to women working in Special Economic Zones (including Free-Trade Zones, Export Processing Zones, Industrial Estates and Industrial Parks) and within them, in the garment and electronics industries. In these zones, there are rarely strong laws that address harassment and violence, while States encourage corporate investment by loosening the regulation in these zones and restricting unionisation. A chilling effect is thus created where even those who might not directly face violence are terrorised by it and therefore become subservient in the workplace.
“Most women don’t enjoy the rights to organise and other fundamental labour rights. Many of them cannot assert their protection from GBV because they are not organised or are not allowed to organise.” Daisy emphasised.
C190 and Recommendation 206 bring together equality, non-discrimination, safety, and health – all under one instrument. Irrespective of whether the work occurs in the private or public sector, formal or informal economy, or in the course of, linked to or arising out of work – everyone is protected.
Farhana Tithi from Karmojibi Nari, Bangladesh has given a succinct example of this, where sometimes even the systems put in place by national legislation – such as the creation of an anti-harassment committee within a factory – do not work, since they are captured by employers. If a worker complains to such a committee, she is immediately fired. “There is no space for women to demand their rights, raise their voice and complain while trade union is banned in EPZ area.” Farhana, who works for the rights of women employed in different sectors, including garment sector workers, has used FPAR to increase the politico-economic understanding and legal capacity of about 300 women workers within an EPZ in the country. Farhana recommended that the monitoring and labour inspection system be strengthened and trade unions be allowed to enter the zone, adding that “positive attitude of the Governments toward the Ratification is significant…. I want to see the implementation of the anti-sexual committee and safeguard in all workplaces, especially EPZ”.
While violence is often mis-characterised as an individual or isolated circumstance, ultimately, violence and harassment in the space of work are public acts. What makes violence and harassment public issues is the deeply pervasive character they take on and the specific burdens they place on minority communities. These outcomes are not restricted to individuals in the garment sector, nor are they confined to special economic zones. According to Manila Shakya from Women Forum for Women (WOFOWON) in Nepal, women employed in the entertainment industry face harassment and violence at the workplace, while the state refuses to take action to address this. “First, it is because the entertainment workers are not recognised as workers; in the workplace, they are not treated as humans but as commodities. Second, because of the absence of recognition, women workers have to face not only precarious work but also different forms of physical and mental harassment.” Manila said.
In this context, if governments #RatifyC190, they are obligated by international law to ensure that there are national laws in place to protect women from violence and harassment at the workplace and prevent it. Upon ratification, they are required by international law to regularly report on the measures taken to implement the convention. Every six years governments provide detailed reports on the updates, while workers and employers submit their responses to the ILO or to the governments.
Khurshida Ibrahimova from the Centre for Social and Legal Support of Women and Children of Mehrzhon, Uzbekistan, has spoken about the purpose of the ratification of the ILO C190 in the context of national laws. Khurshida, who has worked on the rights of women and girls in the agricultural sector for nearly two decades, explains in Episode 4 of Fostering Feminist Movement, that the ratification of C190 will strengthen the existing national laws and ensure protection of women workers. She makes it clear that C190 is a necessary starting point in a larger movement against violence and harassment against women and girls at the workplace. Beyond the legal framework, it is also imperative to raise awareness and knowledge of rights amongst women workers, even as ILO’s C190 allows women workers to access the vocabulary and legal structure to demand their rights. Khursida’s vision: “I want to find a mechanism for women to feel safe in their employment and their workplace.”
Moreover, as perception of violence and harassment changes over time, industry, culture, and other contexts, it is crucial that a country’s legal system takes a broad view of these terms, to ensure the creation and maintenance of a rights-based framework. According to Adzhieva Eliza Shamilevna of the Women Support Center from Kyrgyzstan, domestic violence and suicide attempts cannot be separated from violence and harassment in the workplace. According to her research, during the pandemic, domestic violence increased by 65% closely similar to the increase in workplace violence . In these circumstances, C190 can serve as hope for a future pathway, Adzhieva shares, “The Kyrgyz Republic conducted the preliminary measure to adopt the document, and our organisation works with grassroots women to raise their awareness of the necessity of the C190 ratification”, where violence is not restricted to conventional perceptions but also includes domestic violence.
Similarly, Ume Laila of HomeNet Pakistan finds it unacceptable that home-based workers are left vulnerable without formal contracts, forced to endure unstable incomes, low wages, and inadequate working conditions, and subjected to domestic violence. “The decision-makers do not consider intimate partner violence as violence because it is a private matter. When it comes to home-based workers, their home is their workplace and they face violence from their male counterparts in the family.” The women’s movement in Pakistan brings their voices to the dialogue. In the same vein, ILO C190 notes that domestic violence can affect employment, productivity, health and safety of workers, making it appropriate for employers and workers to address the consequences of domestic violence in the world of work.
The ratification of C190 is not a distant dream – recently Papua New Guinea and Rwanda ratified C190 in October and November 2023 respectively, while other countries such as Kyrgyzstan are moving fast to ratify it. As more countries recognise the right to decent work and protection from violence and harassment at the workplace, it is also increasingly evident that women workers are running our world. Essential workers, garment workers, unwaged care workers, human rights activists and defenders as well as women employed in dozens of other sectors, ensure that our world is working, and is livable. It is time to ensure that their lives are livable too.
