06.06.2019

Combating discrimination against women at work. #AllJobs4allWomen at the Vth Gusov Readings

On May 30, 2019, international scientific-practical conference “Typical and atypical employment: perspectives of research and legal regulation” (Vth Gusov Readings) was held in Moscow. It was combined with the annual XIIIth Conference of “Lawyers for Labor Rights” association. One of the experts of the Anti-Discrimination Center “Memorial” participated in the conference section “Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Harassment in Labor Sphere”. Conference speakers raised the topic of harassment and violence in the workplace, presented results of their research in Russia, which demonstrated the relevance of this topic for the adoption of the ILO Convention “On the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work”.

The expert of ADC “Memorial” reported about the experience of the campaign #allJobs4allWomen for the abolition of the list of professional occupations prohibited for women, the legal struggle in Russian courts for recognition of the discriminatory nature of the refusal to employ Svetlana Medvedeva and general recognition of the Russian list of professions prohibited for women as discriminatory. In 2016, the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW) recommended Russia to abolish the list of professions prohibited for women. In 2018, the Russian Ministry of Labor started its work on reducing this list, but so far the order on its reduction has not been adopted by the ministry.