Trade union activism on violence against women in Brazil

Project activities included:

• A regional webinar on the issue of violence against women enabling an exchange of experiences and related policy work.

• Training on digital campaigning to combat violence against women, and activism related to the UN 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

• Review of the campaigns and materials produced, and publication of a report in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Project outcomes:

• The webinar successfully introduced the need for trade unions to tackle the issue of violence against women, and enabled an exchange of experiences, policy work and good practice. It was attended by 66 people from 15 countries (UK, Switzerland, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay, Jamaica and Cuba through BWI Facebook.) 

• Training on issues related to gender inequality and gender-based violence, and on digital campaigning.

• Nine trade unions in Brazil took forward campaigns to combat gender-based violence, linking this to the UN 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Overall, the digital campaign reached more than 28,000 people, and 2,500 workers accessed printed materials.

• Lessons learned and the impacts of the digital campaigning activities were discussed in an online evaluation session. Participants reported the success of the campaign among workers and recognised the wider importance of digital campaigning.

The TUC project was the spark for similar projects carried out in Spanish speaking countries in Latin America, as well as Southern Africa and India. The BWI were also able to hold multi-stakeholder dialogues in South Korea, Jamaica and Nepal that they credit to the TUC Aid initiative. Unions in Brazil are now continuing with post-project digital campaign training, focusing on building understanding on how to use ILO Convention 190 on Workplace Violence and Harassment in policy engagements and workplace negotiations.

• The BWI have produced a report on the TUC Aid work and its sister projects.