A/HRC/15/20* Special Administrative Region of China, foresees a minimum wage, overtime pay, a weekly day of rest, maternity leave and paid annual leave for domestic workers. Austrian law requires that live-in domestic workers have at least a 10-hour period of daily rest, including during the night hours of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. 78. Some countries have introduced standard contracts for migrant domestic workers that provide certain minimum standards of employment. In 2007, for example, the United Arab Emirates introduced a standard contract for domestic workers that details entitlements relating to wages, rest breaks, payment of salaries and medical treatment. Lebanon followed suit in 2009. Standard contracts constitute a significant advance, although many still fall short of guaranteeing minimum international standards, including non-discrimination between different types of workers. The introduction of standard contracts can supplement, but not substitute labour legislation. Effective labour laws protect domestic workers by setting out penalties, monitoring systems, accessible complaint mechanisms and effective remedies that go beyond the inherent limits of contract law. 79. Even where there are laws and contracts that are meant to protect domestic workers, they are often inadequately enforced. Sometimes employers do not even have to register live-in domestic workers. There are no meaningful complaints mechanisms or the authorities fail to adequately follow up complaints. In many countries, the authorities also lack the legal power or human resources to follow up violations taking place in private homes. A positive exception is Uruguay, where the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate can obtain judicial authorization to conduct home inspections in cases of presumed labour law violations; the inspectorate has created a special section to monitor domestic work.36 Other countries require that employers ensure that live-in domestic workers attend periodic, private interviews with labour inspectors. This breaks their isolation and allows them to report abuse and exploitation. 80. The implementation and enforcement of applicable laws and contracts is often undermined because domestic workers are not adequately informed of their rights and obligations. By the same token, many employers are not sensitized thereon and it is left to their individual moral judgement to determine what constitutes fair treatment. Unions may find it difficult to organize domestic workers since they are dispersed and often hard to access if they live with their employers. In some cases, domestic workers are even prohibited from forming or joining trade unions, which constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of association and the prohibition of discrimination. These obstacles notwithstanding, non-governmental organizations and domestic worker self-help groups have taken up tasks that are the responsibility of the Government: setting up points of information in places where domestic workers are accessible (e.g. shopping malls or waterdrawing points) or providing shelter for workers fleeing abuse or exploitation. 81. The migrant domestic sector is particularly underregulated. Many countries have left the organization of this sector entirely to transnational recruitment agencies who are often more concerned with satisfying employers’ needs than protecting the human rights of the human beings they recruit. In some cases, the authorities have not even put in place basic measures, such as a registration system that records which recruitment agency is bringing in which domestic worker and who that person ends up working for.37 Problems are often handled by immigration authorities, which lack the technical expertise to appropriately address them. 36 37 16 Human Rights Watch, “Decent Work for Domestic Workers: The Case for Global Labor Standards” (2010), p. 19. See e.g. Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, mission to Mexico, A/HRC/11/7/Add.2, para. 91; A/HRC/11/6/Add.3, para. 63. GE.10-15169