Introduction: a draft framework for an ILO Convention and Recommendation

Following the meeting of experts and the endorsement by the Governing Body to proceed with standard setting, the next stage in the process involved preparatory work by the ILO for a draft framework for a Convention and Recommendation, taking into account the views and preferences of its constituents. The responsibility for this rested with the ILO's Conditions of Work and Equality Department (WORKQUALITY), which had oversight for the Gender, Equality and Diversity & ILO AIDS Branch (GED/ILOAIDS) and which played an important role in supporting the standard-setting process.

In this chapter we discuss three distinct developments in the path to the adoption of C190 and R206, focusing on the perspectives of workers and their contribution to the process. The first is the role of the ILO's questionnaire and the resulting “yellow report”, which set out some of the key language and framework for the draft text from which negotiations began at the International Labour Conference in May and June 2018. The second is the role of the campaign and the extensive preparations and strategy in the Workers’ Group before and during the negotiations in 2018. Third is the strategy employed by the Workers’ Group in the negotiations during the 2018 Standard-Setting Committee meetings.

Beginning in 2017, the global campaign to end GBV in the world of work and for a binding Convention played an increasingly important role in building women workers’ capacity and awareness of GBVH and lobbying of governments, with the ITUC taking a lead role in steering the workers’ agreed position to support a comprehensive, inclusive and integrated Convention, supported by a Recommendation. As we discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, the relaunch of the #MeToo movement in 2017 bolstered the global campaign, and added further visibility to the build-up of the global campaign and efforts to raise awareness of the need for a global binding Convention to eliminate GBVH in the world of work unions and their allies across the world. This helped to significantly strengthen and legitimize the negotiating position of the Workers’ Group. These global developments added urgency and relevance to tackling GBVH in the world of work.