We are celebrating International Women’s Day in the midst of a deadly pandemic and major threats to human rights and freedom. For every one of these challenges, women have been at the forefront of the resistance.
From the ‘Wall of Moms’ in Portland, USA protesting against racial injustice and police brutality, to the ‘Women in White’ of Belarus demanding free and fair elections; from the demonstrations against the coup in Myanmar and for democratic reforms in Thailand to those to #EndSars in Nigeria; from the movements for a new constitution in Chile and for legal abortion in Argentina to those against the Citizenship Act and the Farmer’s Bill in India, women are showing that they will no longer put up with violence, injustice, oppression and despotism.
The original revolutionary goals of International Women’s Day – from over 100 years ago – remain relevant today. COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on low-wage workers, informal workers and health care workers, many of whom are women and migrants. Women have absorbed the economic and psychological cost of the pandemic through increased unpaid working hours and care work. Much of this labour is unrecognised. Women's full and effective participation and decision-making in public life is necessary to center these struggles and bring about social and economic justice.
Throughout thepandemic, women have shown that they can lead through empathic communication, anticipatory policy making and building resilience of communities. It is fitting then that this year’s IWD theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. We salute our feminist sisters who lead in big and small ways:at home, in communities, at the national level and in the international arena. We are in solidarity with women who struggle to realise their fundamental rights to access to water, forest, land, food security, healthcare, education and decent work.
Twenty-seven members and partners of GAATW are celebrating IWD 2021 with the launch of a campaign entitled Women Workers for Change. The campaign starts with the premise that all women are workers, regardless of the work they do and whether or not they are paid for it. The broad frame of the campaign will include a number of specific local change agendas identified by women workers. As the campaigns progress, our colleagues from Asia, Africa and Latin America will share their strategies, challenges, and successes with each other. All through the year, we will bring you stories of this collective learning process.
The International Secretariat of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW-IS) is inviting translators and interpreters to roster their services for short term assignments.
1. About the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)
The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) is an Alliance of more than 80 non-governmental organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. The Alliance promotes and defends the human rights of all migrants and their families against the background of an increasingly globalised labour market.
GAATW sees the phenomenon of human trafficking intrinsically embedded in the context of migration for the purpose of labour and calls for safety standards for migrant workers in the process of migration, and in the formal and informal work sectors - garment and food processing, agriculture and farming, domestic work, sex work - where slavery-like conditions and practices exist.
GAATW prioritises the value of experiential knowledge and the role that community-based organisations and women themselves can play in creating new knowledge about and fresh insights into issues affecting women’s lives, including migration and work. Such feminist knowledge is crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of existing labour migration regimes, and advocating for labour migration and anti-trafficking policies that protect the rights of women.
2. About the Call
The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities, injustices and discriminations that different groups of women face all over the world. Even among civil society organisations who are working to address these inequalities, we have seen how the digital divide continues to hinder equal opportunities for participation and access. With the restrictions on travel, civil society groups, community organisers and women activists from the Global South have been unable to equally participate, share and contribute to online events, which still mainly cater to English-speaking audiences.
Like many other organisations, GAATW has moved its meetings and discussions to an online format. And while English remains the common language within the Alliance, we are seeking to provide more opportunities for diverse participation in our activities.
Keeping this objective in mind, we are inviting people with dual (or more) language skills to register their interest for translation and interpretation assignments.
Statement by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women on the occasion of International Workers' Day
This year we are celebrating International Workers’ Day in the midst of a global pandemic. A virus ten-thousandth of a millimetre in diameter has turned everyone’s lives upside down. At the time of writing, the novel corona virus or COVID-19, as it has come to be known, has claimed almost 230,000 lives and infected more than 3 million people. The number is still growing, healthcare systems are struggling to cope with the impact and an economic recession is just round the corner. The pandemic has rendered billions of people jobless, homeless and without food security. According to an ILO estimate, full or partial lockdown measures affect almost 2.7 billion workers, representing around 81 per cent of the world’s workforce.
As we grapple with the evolving situation, a few things are clear: this virus has exposed the stark inequalities in our societies and the abysmal scenario in the world of work. It is clear, if ever there was any doubt, that most governments have prioritised profit over people. It is perhaps not surprising that discrimination and structural violence towards care workers, migrants in low-paid jobs and workers in the informal economy are seen even in the COVID-19 containment measures. Indeed, the lingering images over the last several weeks are of the exodus of migrant workers from cities under lockdown, stranded workers huddled up in makeshift accommodations queuing up for food, workers harassed by law enforcement, women facing violence in their homes and farmers with their wasted harvest and unsold produce.
Women, the Unpaid Care Workers
On this May Day we renew our solidarity with the unpaid care workers, most of whom are women. Many of whom are also in paid jobs. While COVID-19 has closed avenues for paid work for many women, there has been a huge increase in their unpaid care work burden. Before COVID-19, women were doing three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men. Now with children out of school, men out of work, paid care workers not allowed into homes and heightened care needs of older persons, that burden has increased multifold for women across classes and countries. To make matters worse, there are reports of steady rise in domestic violence and child abuse during the lockdown. Confined within their homes, women have lost their peer support and many state and NGO- run shelters are now closed.
About two weeks ago, in mid-March, one of our colleagues received a message from a Thai journalist asking “Do you think that sex workers will be more vulnerable to trafficking now that the Thai government ordered all entertainment places shut?” In our office WhatsApp chat group, we joked “Well, this [linking COVID-19 to trafficking] didn’t take long”.
Statement by the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women on International Women’s Day 2020
Women migrant workers experience a continuum of gender-based violence and harassment, ranging from insults to severe physical abuse, sexual assault, psychological abuse, bullying and intimidation.
This gender-based violence cannot be considered in isolation from the patriarchal stereotypes about women’s place in society, the value of their labour, and the violence that women are subjected to throughout their lives.
This website uses cookies to manage authentication, navigation, and other functions. By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.
