Introduction

This chapter brings the campaign for an ILO Convention centred on GBV into the next phase of the formal ILO institutional negotiations, leading to the tripartite Meeting of Experts on Violence against Women and Men in the World of Work (meeting of experts) in 2016. We show the formative role and influence that the campaign had on the preparations for the meeting of experts, and the subsequent standard setting at the ILC in 2018 and 2019 (discussed in Chapters 5 and 6).

By 2015 the global campaign “Stop Gender-Based Violence at Work!” was becoming increasingly visible and organized, with a growing number of national and sectoral union-led campaigns, coalitions, awareness-raising activities and negotiations with employers to end GBV, particularly on sexual harassment, and on newer issues such as third-party violence and domestic violence. In the collective experiences of women workers and trade union leaders there had never been such activism from women from all corners of the world on the issue of GBV at work. Domestic violence at work came on to the agenda in large measure as a result of the advocacy and campaigning of women in unions (Aeberhard-Hodges & McFerran 2017). Although the #MeToo revelations did not break until October 2017, other developments were at play, including the agreement in 2015 of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the related Sustainable Development Goals (UN 2015).

At a societal level, pressure was mounting for international action to end GBV. The global campaign “16 Days of Activism against GBV”, held annually from 25 November to 10 December, had not at this point focused specifically on GBV at work. However, its advocacy in raising awareness about domestic violence and other forms of violence against women had been an important focal point for women in trade unions. Feminists in national and global unions have been involved, since the inception of the campaign, in holding union events and actions to end violence against women, particularly domestic violence, often in partnership with feminist NGOs, and these campaigns increasingly became focused on GBV at work, including the impact of domestic violence at work.