• Migrant workers hold placards during a demonstration to support the rights of migrant domestic workers on International Workers' Day or May Day, in Beirut on May 1, 2011.
    (c) 2011 Reuters
    Lebanon: Stop Abuse of Domestic Workers
    Lebanese authorities should act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers. The government should also announce publicly the outcome of the investigation into the recent abuse and subsequent suicide of Alem Dechasa-Desisa, an Ethiopian domestic worker.
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Domestic Workers

  • UAE: Proposed Law to Benefit Domestic Workers
    May 11, 2012
    A proposed United Arab Emirates (UAE) law on domestic workers holds promise for significant improvements in addressing worker abuse. While a newspaper has reported about the law, its contents have not been made public, and a number of the reported provisions raise concerns.
  • The invisibility of domestic workers
    May 4, 2012

    Liesl Gerntholtz, the Director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, says one of the major problems they have found in their latest research (mainly in Asia and the Middle East) is that labor law does not recognize domestic workers as workers so they are therefore not well protected. 

  • Uruguay: First to Ratify Domestic Workers Convention
    May 1, 2012
    Uruguay’s move to be the first country to ratify the international Domestic Workers Convention brings long overdue protections closer to reality for millions of women and girls worldwide, Human Rights Watch said today. The treaty, which extends core labor rights to an estimated 50 to 100 million domestic workers, will come into legal force when it is ratified by two countries.
  • Asia/Middle East: Increase Protections for Migrant Workers
    Apr 15, 2012
    Labor ministers from 19 Asian and Middle Eastern countries should endorse protections for migrant workers and increase dialogue with civil society, Migrant Forum Asia and Human Rights Watch said today. The ministers are meeting in Manila from April 17 to 19, 2012, as part of the second round of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, an inter-regional consultation between labor-sending countries and labor-receiving countries on contractual migrant workers.
  • Indonesia: Parliament Approves Migrant Workers Convention
    Apr 12, 2012

    Indonesia’s ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention will bring new protections for millions of Indonesian migrant workers, Migrant Care and Human Rights Watch said today. The Indonesian parliament adopted the international treaty on April 12, 2012, without reservations in a plenary session.

  • Saudi Arabia: A Step to Aid Migrant Workers
    Apr 10, 2012
    The Saudi Labor Ministry’s proposal to abolish the employer-based “sponsorship” system is a positive step for migrant workers. The system fuels human rights abuses against migrants by tying their legal residency in the country to one employer.
  • An Unnecessary Tragedy
    Apr 1, 2012
    The abuse of Dechasa-Desisa was outrageous and its perpetrator must be held accountable. But the issue here is not just the criminal behavior of a recruiter, but the entire system of recruiting and regulating migrant domestic workers. Dechasa-Desisa’s death was entirely foreseeable and could have been prevented had the Lebanese authorities granted domestic workers their most basic rights.
  • Lebanon: Stop Abuse of Domestic Workers
    Mar 23, 2012
    Lebanese authorities should act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers. The government should also announce publicly the outcome of the investigation into the recent abuse and subsequent suicide of Alem Dechasa-Desisa, an Ethiopian domestic worker.
  • US: Letter to Department of Labor on Application of Fair Labor Standards Act to Domestic Service
    Mar 21, 2012
  • Protecting domestic workers
    Mar 12, 2012

    Four years ago this month, I visited the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh while investigating mistreatment of migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. It was a sobering way to spend March 8, International Women’s Day. 

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