News

A year ago, we celebrated our 40th birthday with parties in Melbourne and Sydney. We were honoured to hear from unionists and human rights defenders from as far as Fiji to Western Sahara, demonstrating the breadth of our concern and our friendships. This year we’re repeating the dose, putting on internationalism night of nights – not once but twice.

Abeer Al Saleh works part-time at the Palestinian Women's Humanitarian Organization in Lebanon. Abeer’s daughter, seven-year-old Rusul, was born into the Burj el-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Beirut, a great-grandchild of the first Nakba of 1948. This was Israel’s first brutal expulsion, forcing an estimated 750,000 people from Palestine and killing another 10,000 to create the state of Israel. This is not just the story of an aid worker—it’s the ongoing story of Palestinian refugees, generations after the Nakba.

In a bold move to protect its people, the Kenyan government has announced that all asbestos roofing materials must undergo safe removal from buildings across the country.

Global solidarity is paying off. After coordinated union actions around the world, pressure has pushed the Lululemon supplier back to the table—and it’s working. Talks between the union and factory management have resumed, and already there’s a major breakthrough: five sacked union leaders have been reinstated with full backpay.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has taken an historic stand against Myanmar’s military regime. This month, in Geneva, the ILO announced decisive action under Article 33 in response to severe violations of labour and human rights, including compulsory military conscription. The junta’s breaches of ILO conventions on freedom of association, the right to organise, and prohibitions on forced labour have been met with global condemnation.

In a powerful step forward for workers’ rights and gender justice, domestic homecare workers in Timor Leste have formed their first-ever union—a historic milestone for the country’s 30,000 domestic workers, the majority of whom are women.

By Katie Camarena. In early 2009, I left the relative comfort of home in Sydney to live, work and volunteer on the Thai-Burma border. A planned three-month stay turned into a three-year journey as I found my feet as an aid worker.

In the midst of bombings, evacuations, and widespread fear, the Palestinian Women's Humanitarian Organisation moved quickly to support both its staff and the wider refugee community.

Cambodia has one of the highest rates of female workforce participation in Southeast Asia, with women making up 90% of garment workers and nearly 40% of the construction industry. Yet, despite the fact that these industries would grind to a halt without them, women remain underrepresented in all leadership positions, including union leadership, and are often excluded from major decisions that affect their livelihoods.

At the upcoming International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2025, the world has a chance to act through ILO Article 33, a powerful measure to hold the junta accountable for forced labour and trade union repression.