News

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.

Central Asian Labor Migrants Amid Lockdown in Russia

As the world is now discussing the possible impact of the novel Coronavirus crisis on economies, societies, and lifestyles of people in a post-pandemic world, many Central Asian labor migrants in Russia are trying to figure out if they can make it through the lockdown.

UN CEDAW calls on Kyrgyz and Kazakh authorities to abolish discriminatory lists of professions prohibited for women

United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW) adopted recommendations to Kazakhstan and formed a list of issues for the Kyrgyzstan authorities during the Committee’s 74th session and 76th pre-session.

The Monitoring Mission developed recommendations to the Governments of the Central Asia Republics

The participants of the Third Coordination Meeting of the International Labour Rights Monitoring Mission for Central Asia convened in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) on November 14 through 16, 2019, representing independent trade union and human rights organisations of Belarus, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the USA, and Uzbekistan, exchanged opinions and information concerning the developments in the region in 2019 and pointed out the persistently grave situation in the Central Asian countries in terms of respect for the labour rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core Conventions of the International Labour Organisation, along with the widely spread use of forced and child labour in the region, discrimination, particularly, against women and migrant workers, and restrictions imposed on the activities of independent trade unions and efforts to defend labour rights.