Global 16 Days Campaign

The 16 Days Campaign is the longest running campaign to end violence against women. In 2018, Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, CWGL, adopted a multi-year theme, with a focus on ending GBV and harassment in the world of work to build support for a new international instrument. In June 2019, the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted the Violence and Harassment Convention, C190 and the Campaign shifted its focus to ratification. Before the first anniversary of its adoption on June 21, 2020, Uruguay and Fiji became the first two countries to ratify the Convention, which will come into force in June 2021. Today, Argentina is on its way to being the third!

In 2020, the Campaign will continue to call for ratification of C190, but with a dedicated focus on informal women workers whose lives and livelihoods have been acutely impacted by COVID-19 and the unprecedented economic crisis that has followed. According to the ILO, more than 60% of the world’s employed earn their living in the informal economy and 92% of women in employment in developing countries are informally employed. They face precarious workplace conditions and are typically excluded from national labor laws and denied social protection. The pre-existing risks and vulnerabilities faced by these workers around the world have been heightened and exacerbated by the COVID-19 public health and economic crises.

The informal economy encompasses many sectors. The 2020 Global 16 Days Advocacy Guide highlights the concerns of informal women workers in six different sectors which illustrate the precarious situation of many women in the world of work: domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors, agricultural workers, waste-pickers, and sex workers.  Read more…