UN Women Gender Equity Seal: Public Comment Period

SAI has posted a draft of the GES standard for public review and comment. We invite you to comment on the draft standard and respond to a brief survey (15 minutes) to gauge overall interest and perspective on the draft GES. Visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/UNGES to begin your review. The draft standard and survey will be open December 15-January 31.

The goal of the GES is to provide a 'gender lens'- a specialized standard - to target existing inequities and provide a management-system based approach to improvement. The goal is for the GES standard to be easily integrated into, or be part of, a company's existing labor code of conduct monitoring program. GES is to be applied, like SA8000^®, as a management-based standard, allowing for ongoing monitoring and review of respective gender equity policies implemented under the standard.   GES has, as its foundations, the relevant ILO Conventions, UN Women/UN Global Compact Women's Empowerment Principles and international human rights instruments. It includes criteria on equal pay and equal treatment in relation to recruitment, employment and termination of contracts as well as provision of a safe working environment with an effective sexual harassment policy, and flexible and nondiscriminatory work practices.   To review, comment and respond to the survey on the draft of the UN GES Standard visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/UNGESstandard.   For more information, contact Caroline Lewis at CLewis@sa-intl.org.   SIA19643