25 Nov 2005 -
UN Day for the elimination of violence against women

The ITF has marked the UN Day for the elimination of violence against women regularly over the past few years, since the decision to do so was taken at our Women’s Conference in Vancouver in 2002.

Why are we doing this?

Many transport workers are vulnerable to physical and non-physical violence because of the jobs they do – working in stressful situations with the public, working alone and working unsocial hours are some of the factors involved. Women and men suffer from these factors, but women are vulnerable in different ways, both because they often handling customer relations, and because working alone or at night as well as travelling to and from work at night can mean they are in danger from sexually-motivated attacks.

Many of the ITF’s affiliated unions have been working on issues of domestic violence, and on ways that sufferers from violence can be given help in the workplace. This would include unions arguing for access to medical support and counselling, as well as ensuring confidentiality of cases and sympathetic handling of requests for time off work, where necessary.

In addition, women trade unionists have often been the target of political violence. In Colombia, attacks against trade union women increased by 20 per cent last year, according to the National Trade Union School (ENS).

Women’s activists have marked 25 November since 1981, commemorating the three Mirabel sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of ruler Rafael Trujillo. The United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and asked governments, international organisations and NGOs to organise activities designated to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. In many places, white ribbons are worn to mark the day.

What can you do?

We are asking ITF unions to report to us any activities organised to mark November 25th via the participation form below to let us know what activities your union is planning. View planned activities here.

In addition, this year the ITF is producing a small calendar card; these cards were made last year in our Delhi office and were received very enthusiastically in the Asia/Pacific region - so now we are making them available in English, French and Spanish to all affiliates. Orders for this card should be sent electronically to the ITF via the materials order form below.

You may also like to use white ribbons to mark the day.

The ITF is very interested to know more generally about your practices, policies and experiences in this area. If you have resources that you think may be useful to other trade unions working on this issue, we are keen to hear from you. If you have questions or comments about the issue that you would like to discuss, please tell us at:

We will make sure feedback is received by the ITF Women’s Committee when it next meets in April 2006.