BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbados has ratified the International Labor Organisation’s (ILO) Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019, becoming the second Caribbean country to do so.
Minister of Labor, Social Security, and Third Sector Colin Jordan announced that the country lodged its instrument of ratification of the most recent ILO Convention on September 1, which addresses the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace, with a particular focus on gender-based violence and harassment.
He said that “as a progressive country,” Barbados took a lead role in developing the Convention during the Centenary International Labor Conference in 2018.
“Many hours, much negotiation, and a successful outcome,” he said while recounting his role in the effort. “I had the privilege of indicating to the ILO member states, in the plenary session, that the Convention was necessary, reasonable, and therefore capable of being ratified.”
Antigua and Barbuda was the first Caribbean nation to ratify the Convention; It did so in May of this year.
Minister Jordan committed that Barbados would assist other countries in following its lead.
“We will be doing all that we can to encourage other countries within the Caribbean region but also the ILO region, which is referred to as the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean Countries … to ratify this Convention,” he said.
The ILO’s Violence and Harassment Convention protects workers in all sectors from unacceptable behaviors and practices or threats that aim at, result in, or are likely to result in physical, psychological, sexual, or economic harm and includes gender-based violence and harassment.
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