A/HRC/15/20* domestic slavery. Domestic workers, especially if they live with their employers, often find themselves physically and socially isolated from their families, friends and peers. 17. Their physical and social isolation, which is at times deliberately fostered by unscrupulous employers, interferes with their human right to freely organize and associate. The highly personalized relationship with the employer makes collective bargaining very difficult. Despite these obstacles, domestic workers are increasingly forming organizations. There are now a number of domestic workers associations doing outstanding work and some pioneers have even organized themselves into domestic worker cooperatives. Labour unions also increasingly incorporate domestic workers. 18. Domestic workers are often “physically invisible” to the general public. More importantly, much as in other gendered relationships, domestic work is deliberately made invisible to public scrutiny: A “private sphere” is socially constructed, where labour relationships are supposedly beyond State or social control. This thinking is reminiscent of archaic arguments that sought to condone domestic violence against women or children as a “private matter”, rather than recognizing the crimes that such acts constitute. 19. There is a misperception that domestic work is unskilled work or does not constitute work at all; just like women’s unpaid work in the family is undervalued. The relationship between domestic worker and employer is mistakenly perceived as status-based, with a superior master commanding an inferior servant, rather than a contractual arrangement between parties with mutual rights and obligations. In a modern variant of this perception problem, domestic workers are regarded as “members of the family”. Depending on the will of the employer, this can mean very favourable treatment or intolerable encroachment on their personal space and liberties. 20. In recent years, the migration of women for domestic work has rapidly grown and become one of the key factors in the ongoing feminization of migration. An entire industry of migrant domestic work has evolved, driven by a surging demand for domestic work in richer countries, stark global income inequalities and transnational recruitment agencies. Migrants, mainly women from Asia, are now the largest group of domestic workers in the Middle East and Europe.4 Domestic work opportunities draw migrant women with little formal education and more educated women lacking linguistic qualifications or the internationally accepted diplomas to find other types of work. 21. A precarious visa and immigration status, unfamiliarity with the local context and language and discrimination make migrant domestic workers particularly vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and subjugation to slavery-like practices. 22. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned about the high number of children in domestic work (see section 2c). Children are often sought for domestic work as they are seen as cheaper, less demanding and easier to control than adults. There are large numbers of child domestic workers in all continents, with the highest number probably residing in Asia. For example, ILO reports that 175,000 children under 18 are employed in domestic service in Central America, more than 688,000 in Indonesia, 53,942 children under 15 in South Africa and 38,000 children between 5 and 7 in Guatemala.5 Girls constitute the vast majority of child domestic workers (90 per cent according to some estimates). According to ILO, more girls under 16 years are in domestic service than in any other category of child labour.6 4 5 6 GE.10-15169 “Decent work for domestic workers”, para. 21. See ILO, “Domestic labour: Global facts and figures in brief”. Available from http://www.ilo.org/ipec/areas/Childdomesticlabour/lang--en/index.htm. Dr. June Kane, Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic labour and 5