TIRANA, March 8 /ATA/ – By I. Vata/ Under the auspices of Parliament Speaker Lindita Nikolla, the Albanian Parliament and the Albanian Network of Women in Science hosted on Wednesday the Roundtable “Together with the ILO in the Fight against Violence.”
The roundtable was held in the framework of March 8, International Women’s Day, and the ILO Convention No. 190 on Eliminating Violence and Harassment, ratified by the Assembly on February 3, 2022.
The Roundtable was attended by MPs, members of the Albanian Network of Women in Science, representatives of the ILO, reputed lawyers, representatives of civil society, etc. The UN Resident Representative in Albania, Fiona McLuney, was also present.
The roundtable focused on fight against violence and harassment in the world of work. The experts discussed the standards of ILO Convention 190 “On Violence and Harassment, their implementation as part of Albanian legislation and in the labor market of Albania, as well as the impact of the Convention on improving safety and health in general and in the work place in particular.
In her address, Parliament Speaker Nikolla focused on two issues: narrowing the gap of gender inequality and the fight against violence and gender-based harassment in relationships and the workplace.
“Despite the nuances in different countries, the truth is that everywhere women are more on the fringes of society, under- represented, with less access, resources and less beneficiaries of society’s investments than men. Women’s participation in social development is not equal with men’s participation. But asymmetry is also identified within aspects of development. Women and girls have uneven access and contributions to certain areas of economics, technology, industry or political and social life. Scientific research and entrepreneurship are merit-based and as such are impossible to be regulated by decrees or promotional or preferential lanes as done in some other aspects, such as in political, legislative and municipal representation. However, the fact is that there is still a gap between the achievements in academic activity and scientific research and indicators at the leading levels of these fields, which is attributed to the lack of attention and mechanisms for recognizing the leading credentials of women. Academic and scientific environments need to become more productive and one way to increase productivity is to empower women’s leadership. “Academic and scientific environments need to be emancipated more and one way towards emancipation is the empowerment of women’s leadership,” Nikolla said.
Regarding the fight against violence in the workplace, Nikolla said that “Albania is one of the first countries to ratify ILO Convention No . 190, showing high sensitivity in addressing the protection of women and girls in the labor market. Ratification of ILO Convention No. 190 promotes responsibility in the fight against violence and harassment in the world of work and provides for the increase of capacities of preventive, inspection, monitoring and punitive structures, treating violence and harassment in the workplace not only as a form of inequality in the market, but also as a threat to public safety and health. Indicators of inequality of knowledge, income, time and work, show a marked gender gap. My concern is that these indicators are tied to more serious phenomena in the labor market other than gender segregation.
“Reducing inequality, and eliminating violence, as a derivative of it, can not only be achieved by setting up preferential mechanisms and lanes, but require adaptive leadership in society, especially in the economic system and markets.”
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