This chapter charts developments in the global campaign “Stop Gender-Based Violence at Work! Support an ILO Convention!” between 2009 and 2015. We look at how momentum for standard setting was built, starting with the adoption of the 2009 ILC Resolution on gender equality at the heart of decent work, leading to the decision of the ILO Governing Body in 2015 for a standard-setting item on violence and harassment in the world of work.

The ITUC global campaign “Stop Gender-Based Violence at Work! Support an ILO Convention!”

The ITUC global campaign “Stop Gender-Based Violence at Work! Support an ILO Convention!” (referred to as “the global campaign”) formally began in 2009, when a space opened up for a global binding standard on violence and harassment as a result of the ILC Resolution on gender equality at the heart of decent work (ILO 2009c). Building on many years of trade union campaigning, this period was marked by a greater convergence of and momentum among women workers’ campaigns across the world to make GBV at work more visible. Women in trade unions were stepping up their organizing around key gender equality issues at the global, regional and national levels, and asserting a much greater role in lobbying at the global level around GBV. Trade union mobilization around GBV was building into a global movement, helped in no small way by a shift taking place in the trade union movement itself, driven by the increasing feminization of unions and union agendas. A shift in focus from violence against women to gender-based violence was also an important milestone for trade unions, particularly because it made it possible to bring gender power relations to the centre of the campaign, Cathy Feingold of the AFL-CIO said in her interview: