International exhibition
«HUMAN RIGHTS? @WORK»

HUMAN RIGHTS? @WORK

Curated by Roberto Ronca
International Contemporary Art Exhibition
141 Artists | 29 Countries

June 5 – October 5, 2021

The Project

Goal 8 of the UN 2030 Agenda reads as follows: Encourage lasting, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

More or less half of the world’s population still lives on the equivalent of about two dollars a day. In many places, having a job does not guarantee the possibility of escaping poverty. This slow and uneven progress requires us to reconsider and reorganize our economic and social policies aimed at eliminating poverty. A prolonged lack of decent job opportunities, insufficient investment and under-consumption lead to an erosion of the basic social contract at the foundation of democratic societies, according to which we all must contribute to progress. Creating quality jobs remains a major challenge for nearly all economies.

Economic and sustainable growth will require companies to create conditions that allow people to have quality jobs, which stimulate economies and at the same time do not harm the environment. In addition, job opportunities and decent working conditions are needed for the entire population of working age.

Facts and Figures

The global unemployment rate in 2017 was 5.6 per cent, down from 6.4 per cent in 2000.

Globally, 61 per cent of all workers were engaged in informal employment in 2016. Excluding the agricultural sector, 51 per cent of all workers fell into this employment category.

Men earn 12.5 per cent more than women in 40 out of 45 countries with data. The global gender pay gap stands at 23 per cent globally and without decisive action, it will take another 68 years to achieve equal pay. Women’s labour force participation rate is 63 per cent while that of men is 94 per cent.

Despite their increasing presence in public life, women continue to do 2.6 times the unpaid care and domestic work that men do.

Goals

1. Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries.
2. Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors.
3. Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.
4. Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead.
5. By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
6. By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training.
7. Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
8. Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment.
9. By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products.
10. Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all.
11. Increase Aid for Trade support for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, including through the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to Least Developed Countries.
12. By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization.

Since setting the goals of the Agenda 2030, unfortunately many things have changed around the world from 2020 to today.

The data cited has dramatically worsened and the recession has increased, global growth has declined, millions of people have lost their jobs, and almost every workplace is experiencing severe problems. All this, albeit to a different extent depending on the country, affects all people in the world.

The gaps between social classes have dramatically widened, the gender gap is ever deeper, and youth unemployment and in general has reached alarming levels; to recover from such a serious situation, effective social and labor policies will be needed at all levels and all governments of the world require enormous responsibility, great ethics, great professionalism and above all an ability to operate as never before.

The power of art, as has happened in every era, is to tell about the contemporary, denounce its aberrations, enhance its excellence and potential and create a communication bridge to propose new solutions for a more creative and more effective future.

Also for this, AIAPI therefore asks Artists from all over the world to loudly denounce a situation that, if before 2020 was serious, is now truly dramatic!

Talking, shouting, being heard so that all the people of the world can have access to full enjoyment of their right to decent and guaranteed work is essential!

Talking about it through the universal language of art is an incredibly effective way to be able to talk to anyone, of any culture and of any age, also and above all, creating new creative visions that the mind of the Artist has always been able to offer to the world.

The word to the Art!