News

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the 8th meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee on COVID-19 – 14 July 2021

Last week marked the fourth consecutive week of increasing cases of COVID-19 globally, with increases recorded in all but one of WHO’s six regions.  And after 10 weeks of declines, deaths are increasing again. The virus continues to evolve, resulting in more transmissible variants.

Cotton campaign page summary on Turkmenistan

Comments Concerning the Ranking of Turkmenistan by the United States Department of State in the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report
February 2020 | by the International Labor Rights Forum on behalf of the Cotton Campaign

New FAO-led food security and nutrition report for Europe and Central Asia elaborates on the costs of a healthy diet

Affordable healthy diets can trigger positive development in nutrition, sustainability.

ILO calls for resilient occupational safety and health systems for future emergencies

Better national occupational safety and health policies, institutional and regulatory frameworks, that are also integrated into crisis response, are needed, says the International Labour Organization.

New Social Contract: Five workers’ demands for recovery and resilience

The ITUC is setting out five key demands from working people to build recovery and resilience, putting people and the environment at the centre of the new social contract. Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, outlined the demands during the World Economic Forum, with an ITUC session on the subject taking place at the World Social Forum on the 26 January and a detailed blog on the issues: “The choices made by world leaders and by business in 2021 will either heed the call of workers and civil society to reform the economic model and help create a just and sustainable future or maintain business as usual and see a model of corporate greed entrench inequality, exclusion and despair perpetuating instability for our communities and our planet.”

China’s ‘tainted’ cotton

China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang, according to new research seen by the BBC. Based on newly discovered online documents, it provides the first clear picture of the potential scale of forced labour in the picking of a crop that accounts for a fifth of the world’s cotton supply and is used widely throughout the global fashion industry.

Global Wage Report 2020-21: Wages and minimum wages in the time of COVID-19

This ILO flagship report examines the evolution of real wages around the world, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The 2020-21 edition analyses the relationship of minimum wages and inequality, as well as the wage impacts of the COVID-19 crisis.

Breaking the silence – why domestic violence is a trade union issue

Domestic violence is widespread and has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IUF is today launching Breaking the silence, a guide on why domestic violence is a trade union issue and how unions should deal with it. It draws strongly on materials developed by IUF affiliates.

FAO’s report “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators”

FAO has launched the second edition of its report “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators”. This year marks the 10-year countdown to the end-date of the 2030 Agenda. According to the data contained in the FAO report, collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, progress remains insufficient in the food and agriculture domain, suggesting that the world is not on track to meet the relevant targets by 2030.

GAWU receives 2020 Labour Rights Defenders awards

Accra, Oct. 2, GNA - The General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Ghana, has received the 2020 Labour Rights Defenders Awards for its work to end child labour and advocacy for decent work in the cocoa sector.