2 - The Campaign for a Binding Global Labour Standard, 2009–19

Summary

Introduction

This chapter introduces the global campaign “Stop Gender-Based Violence at Work! Support an ILO Convention!”, beginning with its launch in 2009 until the adoption of the standards in 2019. In Chapter 7 we return to the campaign for the ratification and implementation of C190.

One of the defining features of the campaign is how it galvanized and was actively supported by strong allies and partners, including trade union solidarity and development organizations such as the Solidarity Center, informal workers’ organizations such as Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) and StreetNet International, and human rights, women's and feminist NGOs such as CARE International, Human Rights Watch, ActionAid and the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University, among many others. The global campaign drew on lessons from other campaigns about building a social movement and alliances, including feminist campaigns in Latin America for gender justice and the strong alliance established between trade unions and domestic workers by the ITUC, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) and the International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN), leading to the ILO Domestic Workers Convention No. 189. Alliance building between trade unions, feminist and human rights organizations had been key to the domestic workers’ campaign, with 15 international NGOs signing up as global allies endorsing the campaign and giving support to the “12 X 12” campaign goal: 12 ratifications by 2012.

The subject itself galvanized and united women in an unprecedented way. One of the key people driving the campaign from the ITUC Equality Department, who had also been directly involved in the domestic workers’ campaign and union organizing, was Marieke Koning. Her campaigning knowledge and experience were critical to the campaign. When interviewed, she said:

Many women have been waiting for this for a long, long, time; it was hidden, it was not something that trade union leaders talked about or included as an important element in their speeches, policies … Women joined the campaign; they saw it opening up spaces to talk about GBV, to use it as an opportunity for change and to address it through the unions and ensure that the union takes it seriously.