‘Feminist foreign policy’ is an evolving concept aimed at improving women’s rights around the world through diplomatic relations. Its scope can range from funding development projects aimed at fostering gender equality to increasing women’s representation in the diplomatic sphere and giving them a [...]Read the full article
Women in Mexico are waging a fervent battle against the huge upsurge in gender-based violence and the impunity surrounding too many cases of femicide.Read the full article
“Although they were inspired by the success of the Bangladesh Accord that followed the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in 2013, what sets the Lesotho agreements apart is that they were the first to incorporate International Labour Organization Convention 190 (C190), a [...]Read the full article
Whether in public or private, in the domestic or labour sphere, the killing of women, girls and non-binary people because of their sex and gender is a global phenomenon. According to a 2021 UNODC report, a woman or girl was killed by someone in their family every 11 minutes in [...]Read the full article
Domestic work in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the main source of employment for thousands of people, mainly women living in extreme poverty.Read the full article
Victims of non-consensual image sharing face numerous hurdles when trying to have their photos removed from the internet, porn sites in particular. But new legislation proposals in the EU and UK aim to make the platforms accountable for the content [...]Read the full article
“For decades women have struggled and have ultimately been able to gain rights such as voting, the right to stand for elections [passive suffrage], education, property and work. But women are now once again being forced back into the private [...]Read the full article
In Nepal, the fear and uncertainty caused by the pandemic has intensified various inequalities against women, especially gender-based violence.Read the full article
Yannis Panagopoulos:Trade unions have a duty to provide effective support to the victims of violence and harassment, and take decisive action to prevent abusive behaviours.Read the full article
Tunisia has the most comprehensive laws to protect women from gender-based violence in the MENA region, but the coronavirus pandemic has exposed some of the gaps between policy and practice.Read the full article
Every week, eleven girls aged 10 to 14 enter a delivery room in Paraguay. Every hour, two teenage girls aged 15 to 19 do the same. Paraguay has the highest child pregnancy rate in the Southern Cone. In 2018, 589 births were registered to pre-teen mothers and 16,797 to teenage [...]Read the full article
Guinea has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers, yet the reality on the ground is that domestic workers, mostly female and some underage, continue to suffer all kinds of abuses at the hands of their [...]Read the full article
“The technology to combat human trafficking is there,” says Cucos. What we need to do now, as he underlines in the report, is “to move beyond the cycle of developing and piloting new initiatives, and toward expanding the coverage of those existing initiatives that are showing [...]Read the full article
“The profound implications of the impact of Covid-19 for women and girls beyond a higher risk of mortality is being neglected from the global discussion.”Read the full article
“The employers just think about their money and tell us to work, work, work, work,” answers Rosa. “But our work is so important. Why isn’t it appreciated?”Read the full article
“There are tools for government and employers to address this increase in violence. We know that there is a strong connection between violence at home and violence at work, and we absolutely need to address this in terms of human [...]Read the full article
“Given that we have a federal government that has labelled itself as ‘feminist’, we’ve been hoping that this will be the period in which a National Action Plan on Violence Against Women happens. We’re still waiting.”Read the full article
The most frequent form of violence is bullying, with supervisors screaming and cursing at workers, threatening them if they do not produce at the required pace and harassing them for using the bathroom.Read the full article
Campaigns aimed at stopping the legalisation of abortion, denying gender-based violence or advocating therapies to cure homosexuality are being promoted by international networks forming a powerful lobby. They talk of ‘gender ideology’ and their target is [...]Read the full article
The battle to secure universal access to sanitation by 2030 is being lost. Only 39 per cent of the world currently has safe latrines or toilets.Read the full article
“Women continue to be ghettoised. There are still social shackles, barriers, ceilings and walls against the advancement of women in Pakistan.”Read the full article
Chidi King:The Violence and Harassment Convention (C190) and its accompanying Recommendation (R206) may be the most wide-reaching set of labour standards yet adopted by the ILO, establishing the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and [...]Read the full article
“It’s easy to forget what you ate that day, or what the weather was like. But forgetting the trauma, forgetting the pain, is impossible.”Read the full article
Over the last 22 years, Spain has gone from being a country that was lagging behind in terms of legally classifying and eradicating gender-based violence to being one of Europe’s frontrunners in the area.Read the full article
Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world, with estimates that 28 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 19 have been pregnant or given birth at least once.Read the full article
“We are considered the rotten, dirty apples of society. This country shall never perceive our identities to be beyond that of sex work, even though most of us are here not by choice, but because of our circumstances.”Read the full article
On 23 March 2019, Kurdish-led forces announced the defeat of Da’esh, but the extremist group’s atrocities continue to haunt the Yazidi minority displaced in Iraqi Kurdistan.Read the full article
“Gender-based violence in school and at home, harmful traditional practices – all aggravated by poverty – are the factors pushing children into domestic work. If we had good and strict laws which prohibit children from working, we will not be where we are [...]Read the full article
Sharan Burrow:This month, the ILO will complete negotiations on a new international law to prohibit, prevent and remedy violence and harassment. If the negotiations are successful, the new law will place clear responsibilities on employers and governments for tackling the scourge of violence and harassment [...]Read the full article
A hard-hitting play recently performed in Spain about the highly publicised ‘La Manada’ (‘the Wolf Pack’) trial – five men accused of raping a young woman in 2016 – and the decision to show it specifically to secondary school students has pinpointed an important shortcoming: the lack of sex education [...]Read the full article
By demanding that her aggressor be brought to justice, Marija Lukić became an inspiration for women who are victims of violence, and a problem for political leaders trying to maintain their progressive image.Read the full article
Maria Tsirantonaki:This Labour Day the International Trade Union Confederation is launching a call for a New Social Contract. What does this mean for working women? In the aftermath of #MeToo, 2019 is shaping up to be a key year in tackling gender-based violence at [...]Read the full article
Twenty years after the conflict with Serbia, the victims of sexual violence used as a weapon of war have finally been given the right to recognition by the Kosovar state. But few dare to break the silence, and enthusiasm for the reparation process is already starting to [...]Read the full article
“What’s on trial here aren’t just these two villains. It’s the courts that give reductions for ‘unjust provocations;’ it’s those who don’t implement the Istanbul Convention; it’s those who say women and men aren’t equal by their nature.”Read the full article
Hundreds of young girls living on the streets have virtually no access to education or health care. They often go hungry, suffer violence and feel rejected, excluded from society.Read the full article
“With low pay, no public transportation and no daycare, there are no incentives for women to remain in the workforce. Sometimes it is cheaper for them to just stay at home.”Read the full article
As schools, hospitals and entire villages are destroyed (mostly by government forces), the educational prospects of a generation of young people are being affected.Read the full article
“When feminist movements aspire to bring about a radical change in society, their demands inevitably go much further than equal representation, the bridging of the gender gap or the eradication of gender-based violence.”Read the full article
In the Biobío and La Araucanía regions of Chile the Mapuche communities claim their ownership of ancestral lands, which puts them in direct confrontation with the agricultural and forestry companies that profit from their exploitation of the lands. The disputes have cost [...]Read the full article
“The ratification of the Istanbul Convention is great news because on a symbolical level, when it comes to the balance of power between conservative and progressive forces, it was an important victory for the latter.”Read the full article