Women's Views on News |
| Violence at work: ending impunity? Posted: 02 Dec 2016 02:44 PM PST
Trade union activists have been lobbying for a binding International Labour Organization (ILO) convention against violence in the workplace for many years. Then at the end of 2015, the ILO finally announced that a debate for a convention will be on the agenda in 2018 covering all workers, but with a focus on gender-based violence. Violence in the workplace can take several forms – from physical abuse, such as assault and murder, to sexual harassment and violence, bullying and intimidation to economic abuse. In a verbal statement made following the ILO debate on the subject, an ITUC spokesperson said: "Women are disproportionately affected by violence at work. "We know from the stories of women working in the private and public sectors that gender-based violence is an almost daily part of their working lives." Each year, for example, women journalists are killed, assaulted, threatened, jailed, abused and harassed, most often for doing their job, but also for the ongoing and pandemic discrimination that normalises violence against women around the globe, and keeps impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes firmly in place. Recent UNESCO statistics show that less than 1 in ten killings of journalists is prosecuted, and 92 per cent of those using violence to suppress free expression are never brought to justice. While some of the women highlighted in International Federation of Journalists’ Gender Council's annual report have been killed, assaulted, threatened and abused from outside forces that seek to silence them, according to the IWMF/INSI survey – published in 2014 – half of the women journalists surveyed experienced abuse from within their jobs, and two-thirds had experienced some form of abuse or harassment in the course of their job. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is asking all its affiliates to support the upcoming campaign for an ILO Convention on Gender-Based Violence in the World of Work, seeing it as an essential tool in the fight against this impunity. Controversially, the ITUC also wants to include support for survivors of domestic and familial violence in the standard, at a time when many unions still do not see this form of violence as a labour issue. One notable exception has been the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) which scored a massive victory when it won an entitlement for one million workers to be given some form of paid leave to escape violent situations. Belinda Tkalcevic, Industrial Officer at the ACTU, told Equal Times: "It took us a while to understand why [domestic violence] is a workplace issue. "But once we understood that one of the main reasons women stayed trapped was financial, we knew we needed to support someone to move, help them to protect the children and keep their job." Initial information about this upcoming campaign is available on the ITUC website. Full campaigning material and information will be available at the beginning of next year. Given that many member states do not see the need for such a standard convention, and employer's groups are not often in favour either, members will need to mobilise and work hard to gather enough support. González believes that the real fight ahead will then be over the scope of the convention and whether it will be a binding instrument that creates obligation when a country ratifies it. Campaigners also want to ensure that an expert panel will be convened to examine these issues. Given just how widespread the threat of workplace violence is globally, one big question is why it has taken so long to get the topic on the agenda of the ILO's Governing Body? Raquel González, director of the ITUC's Geneva Office and Secretary of the Workers' Group of the Governing Body told Equal Times that "some members states did not see the need of a standard," while others felt that the "the international standards that already exist were covering the issues. "Employers were not in favour of a standard for all the usual ideological reasons and they are not in favour of international obligations."  |
| Strange Worlds: the vision of Angela Carter Posted: 02 Dec 2016 01:12 PM PST
Angela Carter – one of the most distinctive literary voices of the last 100 years – lived in Bristol from 1960 for nearly a decade. She studied at Bristol University, where she specialised in medieval literature, which piqued her interest in the gothic themes explored throughout her writing. Her life, work and influences are to be celebrated with an exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) and a series of films at Watershed that form part of the Bristol800 programme. The exhibition – Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter – includes painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, printmaking and film alongside illustrations from Carter’s books, manuscripts, photographs and personal artefacts that give a fascinating and intimate insight into her life and work. It also includes historically significant works by Marc Chagall, William Holman Hunt, Paula Rego, Dame Laura Knight, Leonora Carrington and John Bellany, as well as works by major contemporary artists who were either directly influenced by Carter or who explore themes found throughout her work. With Chagall, Rego and Pacheco to evoke the haunting magic of Angela Carter in this explosive new exhibition, twenty five years after her death, Bristol's RWA, celebrates the life, work and influences of one of the most distinctive literary voices of the last 100 years. Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter will invite a dialogue between art, literature and the imagination by exploring the artists who influenced Carter and those who were inspired by her. Delving into the latent meanings of childhood fairy tales and the twisted imagery of gothic mysticism, this exhibition pays homage to the dark and compelling drama of Carter's visual imagination – brutal, surrealist and savage. This unique exhibition, which will reveal the profound impact of Carter's work on 21st century culture, will include painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, printmaking and film from the nineteenth century to the present day. Echoing Carter's recurring themes of feminism, mysticism, sexuality and fantasy, the exhibition will include historically significant works by Marc Chagall, William Holman Hunt, Paula Rego, Dame Laura Knight, Leonora Carrington and John Bellany, on loan from major national collections. The exhibition also features works by major contemporary artists who were either directly influenced by Carter, or who explore themes found throughout her work. These include Ana Maria Pacheco – who will present her macabre and unsettling installation, The Banquet – Alice Maher, Eileen Cooper RA, Tessa Farmer, Nicola Bealing RWA, Marcelle Hanselaar and Lisa Wright RWA. These works will be shown alongside illustrations from Carter's books, manuscripts, photographs and personal artefacts that give a fascinating and intimate insight into her life and work. While living in Bristol, she also wrote The Bristol Trilogy (1966-1971), three novels set in the city in which, according to her friend and editor Lorna Sage, 'art and life mingle so that life itself is often a form of art'. As part of the Bristol800 programme, the opening weekend of the exhibition will include special events and activity relating to Carter's work. Further details to follow. Bristol800 is a partnership programme that is developing, delivering and promoting activities in 2016 that celebrate significant Bristol anniversaries along with other commemorative and special events that raise awareness and encourage debate about different aspects of the city. The exhibition is curated by Dr Marie Mulvey-Roberts of the University of the West of England (UWE), and the artist and writer Fiona Robinson RWA. Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter runs from 10 December 2016 – 19 March 2017 at the Royal West of England Academy. The opening weekend will include special events and activities.  |
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