Building Legal Understanding of Workplace Violence and Harassment: A Pro Bono Collaboration Across Latin America

This impact story is part of a series to celebrate the extraordinary pro bono projects undertaken by legal teams to support NGOs and social enterprises with the support of TrustLaw. All projects mentioned in this series are nominated for this year’s TrustLaw Awards. Find out more. 

A 2022 global report from the ILO, Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Gallup, found that more than one in five employees have experienced physical, psychological or sexual violence and harassment at work. Young women are particularly vulnerable, being twice as likely as young men to experience sexual violence and harassment in the workplace.  

The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) and the Violence and Harassment Recommendation, 2019 (No. 206) were the first international standards to combat this issue. For the first time in international law, they established a common framework to protect everyone’s right to work free from violence and harassment.   

Despite international standards, violence against women remains prevalent 

Although seven Latin American countries have ratified and enforced the Convention to date, reports of violence and harassment, particularly against women and vulnerable groups, are still common in the region. 

In response to this challenge, TrustLaw connected Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género (ELA), a non-profit championing women’s rights and gender equality, with ten leading law firms within our network. This partnership undertook a critical analysis of the regulatory frameworks addressing violence and harassment against women in the workspace and the application of ILO’s 190 Convention in 11 Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Understanding the regulatory landscape can inform the solution 

Baker & McKenzie; C. R. & F. Rojas; Dentons; Gross Brown; Hogan Lovells; Mattos Filho; Q&G Abogados, Cervieri Monsuarez and Robalino Abogados, coordinated by Marval O’Farrell and Mairal, collaborated to analyse how each country has incorporated the Convention’s provisions on violence and harassment into their legislations and judicial decisions. 

Their research was summarised in a pivotal report that ELA is now using to drive awareness and prevention campaigns, conduct training for private companies and state agencies, and advocate for legislative reforms on workplace violence and harassment in Argentina.  

ELA commented that this summary of the laws in the region enabled them to continue their work to drive gender equality in a more informed way. Natalia Gherardi, ELA’s Executive Director, said: “It is always a challenge to properly understand local contexts, and for this, there is nothing better than having legal professionals from different countries willing to work collaboratively on a quality product”.