1 - Introduction

Summary

Overview

This book is about the remarkable global campaign that played a formative role in the adoption of a landmark global binding standard by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190 (known as C190), supplemented by Recommendation No. 206 (known as R206). ILO members overwhelmingly voted to adopt C190 and R206 on 21 June 2019 at the International Labour Conference (ILC). The ILO is the United Nations (UN) agency with a mandate to address and monitor international labour standards. It is, uniquely, a tripartite organization, with a governance structure made up of governments, employers’ organizations and workers’ organizations, which agree and monitor the implementation of international labour standards, centred on a set of core fundamental rights at work, and principles for decent work and for social justice. Established in 1919, the ILO was the first international organization to include gender equality at work within its founding constitution. For the past century ILO Conventions have played a strong normative role through the establishment of international labour standards. As with other human rights instruments, international labour standards have the potential to create new social norms, forge change and empower transnational and national advocacy networks (Brysk 2018). Despite patriarchal vested interests from ILO constituents, there has been a shift in perspective and, over time, an evolution in ILO policy, from a protectionist approach towards women's participation in work to an approach rooted in social justice, decent work and gender equality (Boris, Hoehtker & Zimmerman 2020; Boris 2019; Beghini, Cattaneo & Pozzan 2019).

We document the global campaign to end gender-based violence1 in the world of work through worker-led organizing strategies and coalition building deeply rooted in feminist and intersectional perspectives, historical divisions based on sex, class and race, and the voices of women and other marginalized workers who are disproportionately affected by GBV. We show how women's union leadership, especially from the global South, disrupted institutional patriarchy, leading to the adoption of an international binding labour standard that is unprecedented in its inclusiveness of all workers. In telling the story of the campaign and the formal negotiations, we document how women workers and activists used their collective power to build a global movement to end GBV at work.