Justice for Rizana Nafeek!
This was the message brought forth by around 30 protesters at the consulate general of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today as the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants and International Migrants’ Alliance Hong Kong and Macau chapter led a picket action condemning the execution of Rizana Nafeek.
Rizana Nafeek was a Sri Lankan domestic worker sentenced to death by beheading by the KSA government after being found guilty of killing her 4-month old ward in 2005. During the time of the investigation and hearing of the case, she did not have full access to complete translation and even to a legal counsel. The body of the baby was not even autopsied during the investigation.
Friday, 1 February 2013
HK’s move to abolish levy is migrant workers’ win, says APMM
It is a victory of the struggles of migrant workers in Hong Kong!
This is the statement that the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) issued as the Hong Kong government announced in its 2013 policy address the intention to abolish the levy for Hong Kong-based people who want to employ foreign domestic workers (FDWs).
The levy pertains to the HK$9,600 tax imposed by the Hong Kong government in 2003 on anyone who would want to hire an FDW. The levy was announced six months after the said government cut the wages of FDWs by HK$400. The said levy was suspended in 2008.
According to the APMM, the HK government should not only attribute the levy’s abolition to easing the burden of families hiring FDWs but also to the FDWs themselves who have launched a resounding campaign to abolish the levy.
Monday, 27 August 2012
Jailed Taiwan domestic needs freedom fund
A foreign domestic worker (FDW) in Taiwan is seriously in need of assistance from migrant organizations and advocates. Helen Carumba, a 49-year old foreign domestic worker (FDW) with three children has been sentenced by prosecutors to 10 months of imprisonment. Earlier, she was arrested and detained by Taiwan’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) for falsification of her own travel documents.
Prior to this, Ms. Carumba had already been detained for
four (4) months, a highly irregular circumstance since Taiwanese law mandates
that illegal migrants should immediately be deported, and that the NIA can only
detain migrants for the mere purpose of deportation (unless the prosecutor
officially requests for longer detention. In Helen’s case, there was no such
request from the prosecutor.
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Migrants’ C189 advocacy bears fruit
(Source: APMM News Digest, July 2012)
“Finally, months of campaigning and lobbying by migrant
organizations have paid off, and the C189 can now be used as a benchmark for
protecting the rights of all dometic workers, especially those working abroad.”
This was the reaction of Ramon Bultron, Managing Director of
the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), on the Philippine Senate’s recent
ratification of the ILO Convention on Domestic Work (C189). Voting
overwhelmingly for the Convention last August 6, the Upper House passed Senate
Resolution No. 816, or the Resolution Concurring in the Ratification of
Convention 189, Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers. This
was approved on third reading with 20 votes, zero negative vote and zero abstention.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Update No. 7 - 100th ILC - Geneva, Switzerland
100th ILO annual Conference decides to bring an estimated 53 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide under the realm of labour standards
The government, worker and employer delegates at the 100th annual Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Thursday, 16 June adopted a historic set of international standards aimed at improving the working conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide.
Press release | June 16, 2011
GENEVA, (ILO News) – The government, worker and employer delegates at the 100th annual Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Thursday, 16 June adopted a historic set of international standards aimed at improving the working conditions of tens of millions of domestic workers worldwide.
“We are moving the standards system of the ILO into the informal economy for the first time, and this is a breakthrough of great significance,” said Juan Somavia, ILO Director-General. “History is being made.”
Conference delegates adopted the Convention concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (2011) by a vote of 396 to 16, with 63 abstentions and the accompanying Recommendation by a vote of 434 to 8, with 42 abstentions. The ILO is the only tripartite organization of the UN, and each of its 183 Member States is represented by two government delegates, and one employer and one worker delegate, with an independent vote.
The two standards will be the 189th Convention and the supplementing 201st Recommendation adopted by the Labour Organization since it was created in 1919. The Convention is an international treaty that is binding on Member States that ratify it, while the Recommendation provides more detailed guidance on how to apply the Convention.
The new ILO standards set out that domestic workers around the world who care for families and households, must have the same basic labour rights as those available to other workers: reasonable hours of work, weekly rest of at least 24 consecutive hours, a limit on in-kind payment, clear information on terms and conditions of employment, as well as respect for fundamental principles and rights at work including among others freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.
Recent ILO estimates based on national surveys and/or censuses of 117 countries place the number of domestic workers at a minimum of 53 million, but experts say there could be 100 million in the world, considering that this kind of work is often hidden and unregistered. In developing countries, they make up at least 4 to 12 per cent of wage employment. Around 83 per cent of these workers are women or girls and many are migrant workers.
The Convention defines domestic work as work performed in or for a household or households. While the new instruments cover all domestic workers, they provide for special measures to protect those workers who, because of their young age or nationality or live-in status, may be exposed to additional risks relative to their peers, among others.
According to ILO proceedings, the new Convention will come into force after two countries have ratified it.
“Bringing the domestic workers into the fold of our values is a strong move, for them and for all workers who aspire to decent work, but it also has strong implications for migration and of course for gender equality,” Mr. Somavia said.
In the introductory text, the new Convention says that “domestic work continues to be undervalued and invisible and is mainly carried out by women and girls, many of whom are migrants or members of disadvantaged communities and who are particularly vulnerable to discrimination in respect of conditions of employment and work, and to other abuses of human rights.”
Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, in her address to the Conference Committee, said that the deficit of decent work among domestic workers “can no longer be tolerated,” adding that UN Women would support the process of ratification and application of the new ILO instruments.
“We need effective and binding standards to provide decent work to our domestic workers, a clear framework to guide governments, employers and workers,” said Halimah Yacob, the Workers Vice-Chair from Singapore. She noted that the collective responsibility was to provide domestic workers with what they lacked most: recognition as workers; and respect and dignity as human beings.
Paul MacKay from New Zealand, the Employers Vice-Chair declared: “We all agree on the importance of bringing domestic work into the mainstream and responding to serious human rights concerns. All employers agree there are opportunities to do better by domestic workers and the households and families for whom they work”.
“Social dialogue has found its reflection in the results achieved here,” concluded the Chair of the Committee, Mr. H.L. Cacdac, Government delegate from the Philippines, when he closed the discussion.
“This is a truly major achievement,” said Manuela Tomei, Director of the ILO’s Conditions of Work and Employment Programme, calling the new standards “robust, yet flexible.” Ms. Tomei added that the new standards make clear that “domestic workers are neither servants nor ‘members of the family’, but workers. And after today they can no longer be considered second-class workers.”
The adoption of the new standards is the result of a decision taken in March 2008 by the ILO Governing Body to place the elaboration of an instrument on the agenda of the Conference. In 2010, the Conference held its first discussion and decided to proceed with the drafting of a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation adopted today.#
Click HERE to download the full text of the Convention
Click HERE to download the full text of the Recommendation
Source: www.ilo.org / ILO - Communication and Public Information
Photo courtesy of MIGRANTE Canada, a member organization of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA).
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Statement of Migrante Int'l on the Committee Adoption of the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers
The Struggle Continues
Statement on the Adoption of the ILO Convention on Domestic Workers by the Committee on Domestic Workers
June 12, 2011
MIGRANTE International welcomes the adoption of the ILO Convention on Domestic Work by the Committee on Domestic Workers which recognizes domestic work as work and bestows upon domestic workers equal rights and recognition as other workers. Indeed, this is a milestone - a product of long years of hard-fought struggle to secure the rights of domestic workers, including migrant domestic workers which MIGRANTE International has actively supported and campaigned for through its chapter organizations in the Philippines and abroad.
For so long, domestic workers have been denied equal rights and recognition while facing harsh conditions at work and in society. They are most vulnerable to abuse and often mistreated by employers. Many are beaten and raped, and many are murdered. They are lowly-paid and do not enjoy social protection, isolated and discriminated against and without legal recourse because their work is not considered as work and not covered by any existing legal frameworks. Worse, their marginalization is implicitly condoned by the State as the principal agent peddling domestic workers like ordinary commodities without guarantee of protection or avenues for redress of grievance.
However, while the adoption of the of the ILO Convention on Domestic Work by the Committee on Domestic Workers is a momentous event, one must not lose sight of the fact that this is just a small opening and that the struggle to attain equal rights and protection for domestic workers, including migrant domestic workers, is still a long way to go.
MIGRANTE International believes that the bigger challenge is how to push States to institute national legal frameworks to enforce the provisions of the Convention granting that it will be passed in toto by the International Labour Convention (ILC) come June 15-16, 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland. As history would tell, there may be not too many but powerful opposition to the proposed Domestic Workers (DW) Convention who will try hardest to vote down the DW Convention in order to preserve the status quo. This should not happen, but it could most likely happen as the trend in most domestic worker-dependent countries today clamps down on migrant workers’ rights instead of promoting equal rights and protection for all.
Only time will tell if this “landmark” decision will help alleviate the plight of domestic workers, including migrant domestic workers. As the global alliance of progressive organizations of migrant Filipinos, MIGRANTE International shall remain at the frontline of the struggle for the rights and welfare of domestic workers and their fight for justice and the total eradication of modern-day slavery victimizing migrant workers around the world.
Update No. 6 - 100th ILC - Geneva, Switzerland
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON DOMESTIC WORKERS NOW AVAILABLE
The report contains the detailed account of the whole proceedings as well as the final text of the proposed Convention and Recommendation to be presented to the plenary's voting on June 15-16.
You can get the copy of the report by clicking the link below:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
