The Working Group on discrimination against women and girls will present a thematic report on ‘women’s human rights in the changing world of work’ to the 44th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2020. This report will be produced in the context of the Working Group focus on key areas affecting the human rights of women and girls and will aim at reasserting women’s right to equality and countering rollbacks in this area. An overview of the scope of this can be found in the Appendix.
In this regard, the Working Group would like to seek inputs from States and other stakeholders to inform the preparation of this report in line with its mandate to maintain a constructive approach and dialogue with States and other stakeholders to address discrimination against women in law and practice. Submissions should be sent by 1 September 2019 to wgdiscriminationwomen@ohchr.org and will be made public on the Working Group's web page, unless otherwise requested.
Core questions
· What are the main trends influencing women’s human rights in the world of work in your national context and their impact:
on the types of and quantity work available to women, and the quality and conditions of work (including access to social protection and equal pay)?
for women’s safety (including violence and sexual harassment) at work?
on women’s rights to organize and claim rights?
· What are the promising practices emerging from your country to ensure the realization of women’s rights to work and women’s rights at work, in the context of technological and demographic change, as well as continuing globalization and the shift towards sustainability? (laws; economic, labour market and social policies; programmes).
Specific questions
Technology
· How is technological change impacting on women’s experiences of work in your national context? (e.g. increasing access to ICTs, robotics, machine learning, automation)
° What are some of the good practices for supporting women to benefit equally from technological advances? (laws, economic and social policies, institutional measures, regulation, actions by employers)
‘Gig’ and ‘On Demand’ Economy
· How is the rise of more flexible forms of labour, including the ‘gig’ and ‘on demand’ economy impacting on women’s experiences of work in your national context?
° What are the implications for job security for increased flexibility and women’s caring responsibilities, and for harassment and violence?
° Which groups of women are most likely to be impacted by this type of work?
° What are some of the good practices for ensuring access to social protection for women in informal and ‘on demand’ work? (laws, economic and social policies, institutional measures, regulation, actions by employers)
° What are the good practices for women’s collective organising in the context of more flexible forms of labour?
Demographic change
· How is demographic change in your national context impacting on women’s experience of work?
° What are the implications of an ageing population and of the ‘youth bulge’?
° What economic and social policies are needed to ensure that the growth in the care sector creates decent work opportunities for women? What are some emerging promising practices? (laws, economic and social policies, institutional measures, regulation, actions by employers).
Transition to sustainability
· What measures are necessary to ensure that women benefit equally from the transition to sustainability in your national context? What are some of the promising practices to ensure that green jobs do not replicate existing gender inequalities in other sectors (e.g. occupational segregation, gender pay gap)?