International Women's Day 2018: IYCW Women Activists Speak Out Against Discrimination

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“Exploiting people is a crime,
but exploiting women is worse: it destroys harmony”

Pope Francis I

More than hundred years after we first celebrated the International Women’s Day, this year is a good time to review the developments and advances, to reflect on new inspirations, to act for change and to propose alternatives. It is also a moment to celebrate the courageous commitment of ordinary women in our lives, in the movement and in society, who have played a protagonist role in the history of the movement and their communities.

“’I am 25 years old, I live in Egypt, and I am a woman.’ This statement connotes various difficulties in my life. “I live in a country where men dominate women. As a woman, I often get sexually harassed and I am considered a sexual object. As a 25-year-old single woman living in a country like Egypt where most girls get married at 18 years old, I am discriminated. My problems are not dissociated from other issues in our society where there are huge gaps between the rich and the poor, where jobs are increasingly precarious, where there are a lot of tensions and conflicts, and where women are strongly affected.” - Basma

“Reshaping the Future of Work in the midst of Digitalization, Precarity and Unemployment: Action and Commitment of Young Workers”

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The International Young Christian Workers is about to open an International Exchange and Seminar together with the Future of Work Network in Bandung, Indonesia this coming August 12-24, 2018.

We welcome all our delegates from national movements of YCW from Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as delegates and guests from our network the like of Justice and Peace-Germany, International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), International Movement of Catholic Agricultural and Rural Young (MIJARC), International Coordination of Young Christian Workers (ICYCW), International Movement of Christian Workers (MMTC), World Solidarity and many others.

The International Seminar 2018 in Bandung is a dynamic activity to exchange the reality on the life and work of young workers, our culture and our action. By coming together we are writing the history of young workers in the context of World of Work (wow) and by then we are putting a stone-mark of vision of the Future of Work (fow).

News from the Asia & Pacific YCW: “We believe we are the solution”

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Last October the Asia & Pacific YCW (ASPAC) held a continental action meeting, a seminar on social protection and a regional leaders’ exchange in the Philippines. The Continental Action Meeting was held in Taytay, in Rizal province. Twenty-eight participants from the YCW national movements of Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan and the Philippines attended the meeting, and the ASPAC team, the IYCW secretary-general and a PANAF coordinator were also present.

ASPAC had chosen a challenging theme for the Continental Action Meeting: “We Are Young! We Are Workers! Fighting for Dignity.” Participants came together to share their experiences and concerns, difficulties and convictions about the YCW in their respective countries. “We are young people who want to contribute and participate in the society. We are often excluded and not respected. We want to find a way to live a dignified life in this society. Yes, we believe that we are the solution and we can make difference!”

Leave no young women workers behind: End gender-based discrimination at work and in the society! End all forms of violence!

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Today, November 25, as we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we the International Young Christian Workers raise our voices to denounce the widespread violence and discrimination that young women workers experience every day at work and in the society. One of them is Mary, 28 years old, from Nicaragua.

“I am working in a free trade zone for Hansae Nicaragua SA, a garment factory. I have worked there for one year as a machine operator.

In our country, gender-based violence is a problem we face every single day at home, in the way they educate us to assume household tasks because we are women, e.g. cooking, washing, housecleaning, taking care of kids… When I leave my home and go to work, I am faced with sexual harassment in the street every day. The society downplays this practice as something harmless, but in my opinion, it is also gender violence and I really feel harassed as I walk among the people.

Migrants’ Rights are Human Rights, No Matter When or Where

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The forum of the Pacific Island Civil Society Consultation on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is a response by civil society stakeholders strongly endorsing dignity for safe, orderly and regular migration into and from the Pacific Region. The said regional consultation was organized in Fiji from November 2 to 3, 2017, by leading civil society organizations such as the Migrant Forum in Asia, Justice and Peace, Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Center and others. The Asia Pacific International Young Christian Workers movement was represented by Nanang Ibrahim.

The forum gathered representatives from non-governmental organizations, youth movements, trade unions, educational institutions, the business sector, and other individuals who deliberated the key issues on human rights and good governance relating to the implementation process of the UN Global Compact on Migration.

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