WEBINAR: Implementing ILO Convention 190: Lessons from South Africa, Mauritius and Perú on Ending Violence and Harassment in the World of Work

The ILAW Network invites you to attend a webinar on implementing ILO Convention 190 (C190) on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. For a decade, women trade unionists, feminists and activists campaigned to end gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work and, in June 2019, won the adoption of C190. This groundbreaking Convention takes an intersectional feminist approach, targeting the root causes of violence and harassment in the world of work, including multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination. Trade unionists and allies fought to ensure that C190 covers not just directly-hired employees, but workers of every contractual status and workers in the informal economy. C190 places a strong focus on preventative measures, ensuring access to a range of victim-centric remedies that focus on addressing harm, and accountability. Fifteen countries have now ratified C190, and many are beginning to adopt implementing legislation.
 
In South Africa, trade unions, informal economy worker associations, feminists and allies campaigned for the ratification of C190, which was ratified in December 2021. Activists pushed the government to adopt robust implementing legislation, leading the government to adopt the Code of Good Practice on Violence and Harassment in March 2022.

In Mauritius, trade unions and civil society organisations campaigned for implementation and ratification. In 2020 the government enacted amendments to the 2019 Worker Rights Act. Ratification took place in July 2021.
 
In Perú, Grupo Impulsor, made up of trade unions, civil society organisations and activists, successfully campaigned for the government to ratify the convention, which took place in February 2022. Activists are now pushing for robust implementation.

Scholars, government officials and worker advocates will outline the legislative changes adopted; reflect on challenges to enforcement and discuss how to ensure that all workers can exercise their fundamental right to a world of work free from violence and harassment.

   

Panelists

 

• Asha Burrenchobay is the former Senior Chief Executive of the Human Rights Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade. In this capacity, she was responsible for all state reporting pertaining to human rights. The Human Rights Division acts as the Secretariat for the National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow up and coordinates with all Ministries and Departments, as well as civil society. She worked closely in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour to ensure that workers’ rights are respected, including through the ratification of ILO Convention 190.
• Brenda Modise is the Social Policy Officer at the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA). She has been a trade unionist for the past 15 years, in the employment of the labour federation National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) prior to her current role. She is a feminist who fights for equality and women’s workers rights in the region as the Secretary for the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordinating Council (SATUCC). She is also a member of the ILO Gender Task Force and a lead representative in the National Economic and Development Labour Council (NEDLAC) Steering Committee on Decent Work Country Programme. She played a key role in the negotiations at the ILO that resulted in Convention 190 and Recommendation 206.
• Gissela Pisconti is a lawyer with a PhD in gender and public policy, and a member of the ILAW Network. She has 15 years of experience working in service of the labour movement of Perú, focused particularly on developing gender policies for labour unions. She is currently the Project Director at Solidarity Center Perú. She previously taught human rights and labour rights as a Professor at the Universidad Privada del Norte, and at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. She is a founding member of Grupo Impulsor (Promoter Group) for the Ratification of ILO Convention 190, composed of the trade union centres in Perú and other allied organisations, which played a fundamental role in the ratification of C190 in Perú.
• Paul Benjamin specialises in the fields of labour law; public law; legal policy and legal drafting. He is presently a part-time Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape and has previously held other academic positions at the universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand. In the early years of his practice, Paul focused specifically on public interest and labour law, undertaking major cases for independent trade unions. At the outset of the democratic era, he served as a technical advisor to the Constitutional Assembly and was appointed as the principal drafter of the post-apartheid Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997. He recently drafted South Africa’s Code of Good Practice on the Prevention and Elimination of Harassment in the Workplace, which is one of the country’s major initiatives to implement Convention 190.