China promotes gender equality at work

This year marks the centenary of the International Labour Organization. To celebrate the event, the Centenary International Labour Conference, which brought together the 187 ILO member states, workers' and employers' organizations in June, adopted two major instruments.

The first is the Centenary Declaration for the future of work. This document provides guidance to advance social justice and decent work in a context in which labor markets are increasingly impacted by rapid cycles of technological innovation. The second instrument is the International Labour Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, supplemented by a recommendation on the same topic.

Many have argued that it was about time the international community adopted such a treaty as violence and harassment at work have been persistent characteristics of labor markets for years across the globe. According to the latest edition of the ILO Working Conditions in a Global Perspective report covering 1.2 billion workers, up to 12 percent of them said they had been subjected to verbal abuse, humiliating behavior, bullying, unwanted sexual attention or sexual harassment.