Browse by Theme: Dignified Work

This International Women’s Day, CARE International and our corporate partners Avon, Diageo, M&S and Unilever are commited to calling for a strong and progressive ILO Convention to end violence and harassment in the world of work. This letter is co-signed by Amy Greene (Avon), Mairead Nayager (Diageo), Fiona Sadler (M&S) and Laurie Lee (CARE International UK).

The CEO Agenda 2019 was launched at DAVOS by a number of leading fashion brands, with support from Global Fashion Agenda. It’s good to see major brands trying to tackle the ethical and environmental challenges facing the sector – and society more broadly – but the experience of CARE and our partners in civil society and the trade union movement demonstrates a number of important gaps in this Agenda and limitations to what it can achieve in its current form.

Co-authored by Glen Tarman, CARE International’s Head of Global Advocacy, and Lisa Hadeed, CARE International’s Senior Communications Coordinator.

Movements like #MeToo, #YoTambién, #BalanceTonPorc, #NiUnaMenos and others have sparked widespread debate; violence and harassment against women is being exposed in more sectors, and the violence endured by women who are often less visible is gaining more attention. But there’s one debate taking place that more people should know about – here’s 5 reasons why...

#MeToo has left me thinking what would my ancestors have done to keep up the pressure for change? I’d like to think they would have leapt at the opportunity to build an inclusive movement across class and national boundaries. And that they would have fought hard for all women to be protected from violence and harassment.

The UK government is increasingly highlighting the link between business and UK aid, and the need for aid spending to benefit the UK. For us at CARE the primary question has to be: does it economically empower poor women?

CARE is adamant that the #MeToo movement should not go down in history as a flash in the pan, but that we must harness the moment to make it a significant milestone on the path towards gender equality. The agreement at the International Labour Conference (ILC) to establish a new, legally binding convention to ensure that abuse and harassment isn’t part of anyone’s job description, anywhere in the world, is a big step forward. We now have one year to ensure that this draft agreement is as strong as possible before the final vote next June.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has recently published its ‘Yellow Report’ on the input from states, employers, unions and civil society to the proposed new Convention on ending violence and harassment in the world of work. The Yellow Report’s wide-ranging provisions are welcome – but there are key areas that still need to be addressed in the lead up to, and during, the 2018 International Labour Conference (ILC) in May/June in Geneva.