Impact and people
2006
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Regional Meeting for the Americas 2-5 May: Extending social security in Latin America and the Caribbean
03 May 2006
The main problem with social security systems in Latin America and the Caribbean is their limited coverage in terms of the number of workers and family members protected, the range of risks covered and the quality of protection. In some countries, coverage has decreased even further over the past 15 years, according to the report prepared for the ILO Regional Meeting for the Americas. The report sets a global target for governments and the social partners to increase social protection by 20 per cent of the region's total population between 2006 and 2015. ILO Online spoke with Michael Cichon, head of the ILO's Social Security Department.
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Regional Meeting for the Americas 2-5 May: Youth employment in Latin America: Overcoming a lost decade
03 May 2006
In Latin America, 9.5 million young people out of 57 million aged 15-24 are unemployed. Victims of the "lost decade", they were born between 1980 and 1990 and represent 42 per cent of open unemployment in the region. According to the report prepared for the ILO Regional Meeting for the Americas, the situation is even worse if we take account of the 21 per cent of youth in the region who "do not work nor study". And millions of youth are trapped in temporary and casual jobs that offer no labour or social protection and few prospects for advancement. ILO Online reports from Bolivia.
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Regional Meeting for the Americas 2-5 May - Forced labour in Latin America: Fighting impunity
02 May 2006
In Latin America, 1.3 million people are victims of forced labour, representing more than 10 per cent of forced labourers worldwide. According to the report prepared for the ILO Regional Meeting for the Americas, despite this high number it is possible to drastically reduce forced labour over the next 10 years if there is a will to do so. ILO Online reports from Brazil.
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Chernobyl 20 years after: From disaster, breeding a new safety culture
26 April 2006
When the Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on the night of 26 April 1986, workers bore the full brunt of the blast, many losing their health, homes, jobs and even their lives. Since then, significant progress has been made in the development of safety and health at work, but the last chapter of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster has yet to be written, says ILO SafeWork specialist Shengli Niu in an interview with ILO Online.
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Extending social protection to women in the informal economy
21 April 2006
More than half of the world's population has no social protection. Only one out of five enjoys adequate coverage. The ILO-STEP programme aims at fighting social exclusion and poverty and promoting social protection worldwide. ILO Online reports from the Philippines where STEP helps informal sector workers and their families which are generally excluded from the national social security system.
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"Maid in Lebanon": protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers
13 April 2006
Driven by extreme poverty in their home countries, thousands of female migrant workers go each year to the Arab States in order to earn enough money to support their families. What they find there is sometimes not what they expected. , a film directed by Carol Mansour and funded by Caritas Sweden, the Netherlands Embassy in Beirut and the ILO depicts the gamble these women take when they decide to leave their families and go to work in Lebanon.
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In the heart of the sierra: local talent at the service of the global economy
07 April 2006
In Peru, a group of female embroiderers has allied itself with the Converse shoe brand to put their ancestral knowledge at the service of a global company. It is a prime example of what the ILO considers the bright face of globalization: creating jobs locally that contribute to international commerce. ILO Online reports from the Ayacucho region in Peru.
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A global Convention for a global workforce
01 April 2006
The 94th ILC adopted the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 in February, providing a comprehensive labour standard and setting the tone for future Conventions that will regulate not only a sector but address the issues posed by globalization
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PLANET WORK Women in sports: How level is the playing field?
01 April 2006
On the courts and in the courtrooms, the subject of a woman's role in professional sports - and the huge gap between opportunities, funding and media exposure given to males and females in the sporting world - is emblematic of the larger question on gender equality today: is equal really equal? The issue of women and their role in the sporting world includes all the issues currently being debated in the wider world - such as women in decision-making roles, women in management, women in a wide range of professions. Planet Work examines how the role of women in the world of sports illustrates the gender state of play in the wider world, and how women are helping to promote gender equality in a wider professional context through sports.
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Taming the beast: A look at the many forms and guises of workplace violence
01 April 2006
When it comes to violence in the workplace, such as sexual harassment, bullying and threats, abuse of power and even murder, people are asking why it happens, and who can stop it. But violence is a ubiquitous shape shifter, lurking in formal and informal workplaces alike, and it is often hard to pinpoint its occurrence and its instigators. Today, workplace violence is receiving more exposure, and organizations like the ILO are taking a steadfast stance against it by developing standards, codes of practice and community awareness. Based on the ILO's newly released Violence at work ( Note 1), in its third edition, Alicia Priest explores who's at risk, what's at stake and what's being done to stop it.