News

Breaking the silence – why domestic violence is a trade union issue

Domestic violence is widespread and has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IUF is today launching Breaking the silence, a guide on why domestic violence is a trade union issue and how unions should deal with it. It draws strongly on materials developed by IUF affiliates.

FAO’s report “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators”

FAO has launched the second edition of its report “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators”. This year marks the 10-year countdown to the end-date of the 2030 Agenda. According to the data contained in the FAO report, collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, progress remains insufficient in the food and agriculture domain, suggesting that the world is not on track to meet the relevant targets by 2030.

GAWU receives 2020 Labour Rights Defenders awards

Accra, Oct. 2, GNA - The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Ghana, has received the 2020 Labour Rights Defenders Awards for its work to end child labour and advocacy for decent work in the cocoa sector.

ITUC Global Poll 2020 shows urgent need to repair the Social Contract

The annual global poll commissioned by the 200 million-member International Trade Union Confederation shows working people and their families were living on the edge before the pandemic that stopped the world – Covid-19.

180+ Orgs Demand Apparel Brands End Complicity in Uyghur Forced Labour

72 Uyghur rights groups are joined by over 100 civil society organisations and labour unions from around the world in calling on apparel brands and retailers to stop using forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Uyghur Region”), known to local people as East Turkistan, and end their complicity in the Chinese government’s human rights abuses.

SEE-NIS PERC OHS Network’s statement: COVID 19 and Occupational Health and Safety

COVID-19 is threatening the health and the livelihoods of workers globally. COVID-19 will also have major economic and employment impacts. Millions of companies worldwide are in danger of being forced out of business with grave impacts on employment. It will push on liberalisation of workplace legislation and workers’ rights.

COVID-19 may push millions more children into child labour – ILO and UNICEF

Child labour down by 94 million since 2000, a gain now under threat.

For the International Day for Protection of Children, a newsletter on children’s rights was issued.

Within a new phase of the #CrossBorderChildhood campaign ADC Memorial publishes the minimal standards for interstate agreements on return of children based on contemporary norms of child’s rights, recommendations of CRC, Council of Europe, and IOM. Also in the issue: “Children of St. Petersburg” continues to help migrant children in quarantine; the announcement of the report of the The Conflict Analysis and Prevention Centre (CAPC) “A confident step towards the future?” on the problem of adaptation of children traumatized by war, violence, the loss of loved ones and radical religious practices; bacha bazi as a form of child sexual exploitation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

LGBTI+ IN THE REGION OF CENTRAL ASIA: REPRESSION, DISCRIMINATION, EXCLUSION

The main condition in compliance with Human Rights principles should be non-discriminatory realisation of all the rights of each person. Many members of the community view law enforcement officers as the main threat to their personal safety, life, and health. LGBTI+ people frequently become repeat victims of violence, threats, extortion, and blackmail and are under constant pressure from police officers, who threaten to out them. Operational activities, which are periodically conducted in most countries in the region, keep LGBTI+ people in a state of ongoing stress and fear. The creation of special lists violates the rights of LGBTI+ people and makes them an easy target for persecution and humiliation.

ITUC Global COVID-19 Survey: Global gaps in adequate provision of PPE and preparation of safe workplaces to protect workers from spread of Covid-19 in spotlight

As lockdowns are eased in some countries with partial re-openings of workplaces, government and employer preparations to protect workers from Covid-19 as they return to work are in the spotlight. Trade unions from just one in five (21%) countries would rate the measures that are in place to protect workers from the spread of the virus at work as good. Most (54% or 58 countries) would rate these protections as fair. Twenty-six countries (24%) would rate the protections as poor.