A/HRC/15/20* 82. In recent years, sending and receiving countries have intensified their cooperation in concluding bilateral agreements or memoranda of understanding to regulate migrant domestic work and protect migrant. A bilateral agreement between Argentina and Peru, for instance, guarantees that migrant domestic workers receive the same treatment as nationals under labour law with respect to wages, working conditions and social security.38 Other agreements, however, are less progressive and fail to enshrine fundamental protections like guaranteed rest days or prohibition of arbitrary wage deductions. Moreover, there are often problems in the implementation of the undertakings made under these bilateral agreements. D. The international framework: once again overlooking the “private” sphere? 83. International human rights law unequivocally outlaws all forms domestic servitude and domestic slavery. However, available international instruments do not address the specificities of domestic servitude, which undermines the implementation of this comprehensive prohibition. After decades of stagnation, progress in international labour law is finally in sight to ensure decent standards for domestic work and thereby prevent domestic servitude. 1. International labour law 84. International labour law implicitly outlaws domestic servitude by banning forced and compulsory labour and child labour. Relevant International Labour Organization instruments include the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105), the Convention on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No. 182) and the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. 85. As early as 1965, the ILO passed a resolution calling for normative action to improve the condition of domestic workers.39 However, this call has yet to be heeded by the international community of States. None of the 188 ILO conventions to date specifically addresses domestic workers. Instead, many key conventions contain “flexibility clauses” that have been used by certain States to specifically exclude domestic workers from the protective ambit of the conventions. Among more recent treaties, the Maternity Protection Convention (No. 183) and the Night Work Convention (No. 171) allow States to exclude “limited categories of workers when the application of the Convention to them would raise special problems of a substantial nature” (common art. 2).40 86. Responding to a international campaign led by domestic workers associations, the ILO Governing Body decided to place an item on decent work for domestic workers on the agenda of the ninety-ninth session of the International Labour Conference (June 2010). In a landmark decision, the Conference decided to adopt standards concerning decent work for domestic workers, which are to take the form of a binding convention supplemented by a recommendation. 2. International human rights law 87. International human rights law outlaws domestic and other forms of servitude. Apart from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1956 Supplementary Convention 38 39 40 GE.10-15169 “Decent Work for Domestic Workers: The Case for Global Labor Standards”, p. 19. ILO, Official Bulletin (Geneva), July 1965, Supplement I, pp. 20–21. See Maternity Protection Convention (No. 183), art. 2, para. 2, and Night Work Convention (No. 171), art. 2, para. 2. 17