At Human Rights Watch's invitation, Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng writes on the situation of child domestic workers in Indonesia.

They might end up as costly baubles on sale in shops around the world. But for some diamonds mined in Zimbabwe, the journey begins in massive illegal pit mines where men, women, and children are forced to work long days under the brutal authority of government troops, who took over the mine in a spree of bloodshed.

What does this weekend's Domestic Workers' Day mean to the approximately 700,000 Indonesian children who toil in these jobs? Absolutely nothing.

The Indonesian government is failing to protect children working as domestic workers from abuse and exploitation.

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo should urgently carry out new recommendations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to protect children from violence and abuse.

An alarming number of girls working as domestics in Indonesia, some as young as 11, face physical and sexual abuse as well as gross labor exploitation.

Human Rights Watch submits this submission to the Special Committee on Manpower’s review of the draft Regional Regulation for Yogyakarta City Concerning Manpower with regard to the treatment of child domestic workers.