Jane Hodges

Jane Hodges is a member of the Advisory Group for the UNRISD project Linking Social Protection and Human Rights. She also collaborates periodically with UNRISD in other ways: in 2017 she did a podcast on policy innovations on gender-based violence at work, and in 2015 she wrote an article for the Think Piece Series “Let's Talk about Women's Rights: 20 Years after the Beijing Platform for Action”. In November 2012, Jane participated in the Gender-Related Research within the UN System, a joint UN Women - UNRISD workshop.

She is an International Human Rights Consultant based in Geneva, Switzerland. Until 2014 she was the Director of the Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch of the International Labour Organization, and since 2008 headed the ILO’s Bureau for Gender Equality within the ILO’s Senior Management Team. She currently edits the “International Labour Law Reports” (Brill/Nijhoff Publishers).

True to her human rights scholarship and training, since joining the ILO in 1979 Ms. Hodges served in the Freedom of Association and Equality & Human Rights Coordination Branches, the Southern African Multidisciplinary Team (based in Harare), the Department for Government, Labour Law and Administration, and the Department of Social Dialogue, Labour Law and Labour Administration, where she led the Labour Law Reform team.

She has broad experience in international and comparative human rights law, with the specialization of international labour law, and has designed and delivered training programmes in the area of fundamental principles and rights at work, in particular gender equality, human rights and HIV/AIDS. She has represented the ILO in many UN bodies during her career, in particular advocating international labour standards on non-discrimination with the treaty bodies and in the functional commissions and Human Rights Council. Her research into the impact of international labour standards in the delivery of justice had led Ms Hodges to work with judges from across a range of jurisdictions. Ms Hodges is the author of a number of articles and has contributed to books concerning workers’ rights as human rights.

Prior to joining the ILO Ms Hodges practised law as a Solicitor, Notary Public and Trade Marks Attorney, in at the Sydney headquarters of an international law firm.

Selected publications

• ASEAN Guidelines for Gender Mainstreaming into Labour and Employment Policies for Decent Work, adopted by the 26th Labour Ministers Meeting (ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, October 2020)
• Safer Sooner - toward a global binding norm to end violence against women and girls, Co-authors Dr E. Nwadinobi, Prof F. Rivera Juaristi, Dr M. Pisklákova-Parker, Dr H. Aldosari, & M. Khana (Every Woman Institute, Seattle, February 2020), available at https://everywoman.org/safer-sooner/
• Driving gender reform in Vietnam’s Labour Code, ANU’s East Asia Forum Quarterly, Volume 11, No. 1, January-March 2019, pages 32-33. Available at https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2019/03/27/driving-gender-reform-in-vietnams-labour-code/#more-175865
• LGBTQI+ Right to Housing in the United States, case commentary for UNRISD Social Protection & Human Rights webpage, February 2019 http://socialprotection-humanrights.org/legaldep/lgbtqi-right-to-housing-in-the-united-states/
• Research Handbook on labour, business and human rights law, chapter 15 on “Workplace gender equality as a human right: the ILO approach”, Eds J.R. Bellace, University of Pennsylvania, USA & B. ter Haar, Leiden University, the Netherlands (Eward Elgar, NY, August 2019)
• Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law, chapter on labour law, Eds S. Harris-Rimmer, Griffith University Law School and K. Ogg, ANU College of Law, Australia (Edward Elgar, UK, April 2019)
• An Employment Right Standard Provision for Working Women Experiencing Domestic Violence, co-authors L. McFerran & A. Tuvera (2018) U of OxHRH Journal 167 (Oxford University, August 2018) http://ohrhAn .law.ox.ac.uk/first-edition-of-the-university-of-oxford-human-rights-hub-journal/
• Labouring under false assumptions? Exploring the rifts between international standards and cultural values in Vietnam's Labour Code reform: Research paper for ILO’s ‘Women and the Future of Work in the Asia-Pacific’ Conference, co-authored Mia Urbano and Huong Thien (Bangkok, 31 January – 1 February 2018), ILO Bangkok https://www.ilo.org/asia/publications/WCMS_618449/lang--en/index.htm
• Jane Aeberhard-Hodges and Ludo McFerran. An International Labour Organization instrument on violence against women and men at work: The Australian influence, Journal of Industrial Relations. First published 24 August 2017. (Note: Access to the full article may require a payment)
• The role of the International Labour Organisation in balancing work and family in the 21st century, Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 56 No. 4 (Sydney, 2014).
• ILERA: Gender issues in 21^st Century Industrial Relations – the case for pay equity and ILO Convention No 100, paper delivered at the 16th ILERA World Congress (Philadelphia, July 2012).
• International Labour Law and domestic law: A training manual for judges, lawyers and legal educators, Ed. X. Beaudonnet, contributing chapter (ITC-ILO, Turin, 2010).
• ABC of Women Worker’s Rights and Gender Equality, contributor to 2^nd edition (GENDER Bureau, ILO, Geneva, 2007).
• Digest of good legislative practices relating to HIV/AIDS in selected African countries, DIALOGUE Working Paper No. 12, Nov. 2007.
• Les normes internationales du travail: un patrimoine pour l’avenir - Mélanges en l’honneur de Nicolas Valticos, contributing chapter (ILO, Geneva, 2004).
• Manual on incorporating gender into technical cooperation projects on social dialogue, Co-authors Herrell, Kelly & Rueda (ILO, 2002).
• Women, gender & work: what is equality and how do we get there?, Ed. M. Loutfi, contributing chapter (ILO, Geneva, 2001).
• Labour Legislation Guidelines, Chpt. VII “Equality” Co-authors Bronstein et al., CD-ROM & on-line version, ILO, 2001.
• The UN Human Rights Treaty System in the 21^st Century, Ed. A. Bayefsky, Chapter V “Follow-up in the ILO context” (Kluwer Law International, The Hague, 2000).
• Promoting & defending economic, social & cultural rights: a Handbook, Ed. A. McChesney, American Association for the Advancement of Science (Washington DC, 2000).
• Affirmative action in employment: Recent court approaches to a difficult concept, I.L.R., Vol.138, 1999, No. 3 (ILO, Geneva).
• HIV/AIDS and Employment, Co-author L. N’Daba (ILO, Geneva, 1998).
• Affirmative action in the employment of ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities, Co-author Carl Raskin (ILO, Geneva, 1997).
• Sexual harassment in employment: Recent judicial and arbitral trends, I.L.R.,Vol. 135, 1996, No. 5 (ILO, Geneva).
• The right to organize in Article 2 of Convention No.87, I.L.R, Vol. 128, 1989, No. 2 (ILO, Geneva).
• Principles of the Committee of Freedom of Association concerning strikes, I.L.R., Vol.126, 1987, No. 5 (ILO, Geneva)