On the final day of the Centenary International Labour Conference in Geneva, delegates adopt the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019, and Violence and Harassment Recommendation, 2019.  Through these instruments, workers, employers and states recognise for the first time that violence and harassment in the world of work can constitute a human rights violation or abuse, and that violence and harassment are threats to equal opportunities, and are unacceptable and incompatible with decent work.

“We stand in gratitude and solidarity with workers and allies who successfully built consensus around the new Convention to combat violence and harassment in the world of work, adopted by the International Labour Organization today. This is a historic milestone built on the strength of survivors, mostly women, who have come forward to tell their stories and helped organise for lasting change,” said Sanyu Awori, Project Lead for Workers’ Empowerment.

The Convention and Recommendations acknowledge that gender-based violence and harassment disproportionately affect women and girls, and recognise that an inclusive, integrated and gender-responsive approach, which tackles underlying causes and risk factors, including gender stereotypes, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations, is essential to ending violence and harassment.

Companies, as employers, play a crucial role in ending violence and harassment according to this Convention, including by: providing access to gender-responsive safe and effective complaint mechanisms, support, and remedies; recognising effects of domestic violence and mitigating its impacts in the world of work; ensuring that workers have the right to remove themselves from a work situation that presents an imminent and serious danger to life, health or safety due to violence and harassment, without suffering retaliation or other undue consequences.

Awori further said:

“We appreciate the broad definition of violence and harassment to include behaviours, practices or threats that could result to physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm; as well as its broad application to workers irrespective of contractual status. We also appreciate that it applies in a broad range of settings linked to work, including rest areas, travel, training, or social activities.

“We join in calls upon states to ratify this Convention. We also call on companies to publicly support the Convention and its ratification, while making sure that they are all set to comply.

“We will support efforts to bring this treaty home.”

Media contact

Adam Barnett, Communications Officer, [email protected], +44 (0)7753 975769, +44 (0)20 7636 7774 

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