• Pushing for Justice for Domestic Workers

    Tens of millions of women and girls around the world are employed as domestic workers in private households. They clean, cook, care for children, look after elderly family members, and perform other essential tasks for their employers. Despite their important role, they are among the most exploited and abused workers in the world. They often work 14 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for wages far below the minimum wage. They may be locked within their workplace and subject to physical and sexual violence. Children and migrant domestic workers are often the most vulnerable.

    A new international treaty – the Domestic Workers Convention – was adopted in June 2011, providing the first global standards to protect domestic workers.

  • Members of SUMAPI, a domestic workers union in the Philippines, rally for the ratification of the Domestic Workers Convention on December 19, 2011.
    © 2011 SUMAPI
    2012: A Year of Progress for Domestic Workers
    2012 brought significant progress for the rights of domestic workers, with dozens of countries adopting policy or legislative measures to strengthen protections for domestic workers, including 8 that moved to ratify the ILO Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (ILO Convention 189, Domestic Workers Convention). Here is a summary of noteworthy developments.
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Domestic Workers

  • Child domestic workers: 'time to protect us'
    Feb 26, 2013
    Children make up nearly 30 per cent of the world's 50 to 100 million domestic workers, working long hours for little or no pay and at risk of exploitation – but now governments have a chance to do something about it.
  • Protect 15 Million Child Domestic Workers
    Feb 25, 2013
    Ten leading international organizations called on ministers of labor around the globe in a letter released today to protect child domestic workers and to ratify the ILO Domestic Workers Convention (Convention 189 concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers). The convention, adopted in June 2011, will help eliminate child domestic labor and improve the lives of an estimated 15 million child domestic workers.
  • Why global labor reforms are vital to protect vulnerable workers
    Jan 10, 2013
    Rizana Nafeek was a child herself -- 17 years old according to her birth certificate -- when a four-month-old baby died in her care in Saudi Arabia. She had migrated from Sri Lanka only weeks earlier to be a domestic worker for a Saudi family.
  • 2012: A Year of Progress for Domestic Workers
    Jan 10, 2013
    2012 brought significant progress for the rights of domestic workers, with dozens of countries adopting policy or legislative measures to strengthen protections for domestic workers, including 8 that moved to ratify the ILO Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (ILO Convention 189, Domestic Workers Convention). Here is a summary of noteworthy developments.
  • Saudi Arabia: Halt Execution of Sri Lankan Migrant Worker
    Jan 8, 2013
    On January 9, 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced the execution of Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker convicted of killing a baby in her care in 2005 when she was 17 years old. Human Rights Watch strongly condemns the execution.
  • A victory against modern day slavery
    Dec 1, 2012
    Growing activism against modern-day slavery has highlighted the abuse and exploitation suffered by millions of men, women, and children around the world. Donor funding has flowed to create shelters and services for victims while a proliferation of anti-trafficking legislation has focused on arresting and prosecuting traffickers.
  • A year of progress in eliminating violence against women
    Nov 24, 2012
    On November 25 every year, a grim accounting takes place: the world takes stock of violence against women, the toll it takes, and progress toward eliminating it. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women has been commemorated on November 25 for more than three decades. It’s a day each year when my colleagues and I focus on the courageous women we have met, the injustices they’ve suffered, and the hope they inspire.
  • A year of progress in eliminating violence against women
    Nov 24, 2012
    “If I looked nice, he hit me,” Ana L., a mother of five in Colombia, told me.
  • Morocco: Abuse of Child Domestic Workers
    Nov 15, 2012
    Girls as young as 8 endure physical abuse and work long hours for little pay as domestic workers in Morocco.
  • Bahrain: Abuse of Migrant Workers Despite Reforms
    Sep 30, 2012
    Hundreds of thousands of mostly South Asian migrant workers in Bahrain face exploitation and abuse despite government reforms intended to protect them, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today.
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