Pressure Grows to Protect Domestic Workers; Syria; NSA Spying

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/27/pressure-grows-protect-domestic-workers

Legal Advances in Two Dozen Countries as Domestic Workers Meet for Historic Congress

OCTOBER 28, 2013

• What governments should do
  Governments should ratify the ILO Domestic Workers Convention to give them the same basic rights as other workers.

  Governments should bring national laws into compliance with the Domestic Workers Convention and ensure effective enforcement of those laws.

  Governments should protect domestic workers’ rights to organize, form unions and associations, and campaign for their rights.
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  Domestic workers in downtown Lima, Peru demonstrate to demand labor protections, June 15, 2012. The placards (L-R) read, “We all have the same dignity and rights” and “We demand the ratification of the 189 ILO Convention.”
  © 2012 REUTERS/ Enrique Castro-Mendivil

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Claiming Rights: Domestic Workers’ Movements and Global Advances for Labor Reform

(Montevideo) – The founding of a global federation of domestic workers is a sign of the growing strength of the movement, and a key moment to assess progress for workers long excluded from basic labor protections, the International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Human Rights Watch said today. There are an estimated 53 million domestic workers worldwide – the majority of whom are women and girls, and many of whom are migrants.

In the past two years, 25 countries improved legal protections for domestic workers, with many of the strongest reforms in Latin America. Some of the biggest challenges loom in the European Union, which has a growing elderly population depending on the services domestic workers provide, and the Middle East and Asia, where progress has been weak and some of the worst abuses occur.

“Even though domestic workers provide critical services that families depend on – cooking, cleaning, and child care – we have faced discrimination and marginalization for generations,” said Myrtle Witbooi, chair of the International Domestic Workers Network. “That should end.”

Labor leaders from more than 40 countries met in Montevideo from October 26 to 28 to establish the International Domestic Workers Federation to organize domestic workers worldwide, share strategies across regions, and advocate for their rights.