A/HRC/35/10
factors determine the health status of women, whereby special attention should be given to
the health needs and rights of women belonging to disadvantaged groups, such as migrant
women, refugee and internally displaced women, the girl child or indigenous women.
13.
In its general recommendation No. 26, the Committee also noted that women
migrant workers often experience intersecting forms of discrimination, suffering not only
sex- and gender-based discrimination, but also xenophobia and racism. Discrimination
based on race, ethnicity, cultural particularities, nationality, language, religion or other
status may be expressed in sex- and gender-specific ways.
III. Impact of intersecting forms of discrimination on women’s
and girls’ lives
A.
Socioeconomic exclusion and poverty
14.
The Durban Declaration acknowledged that racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance can be among the factors leading to a deterioration in
women’s and girls’ living conditions, poverty, violence, multiple forms of discrimination,
and the limitation or denial of women’s and girls’ human rights. Women and girls who are
affected by intersectional discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, work and descent
or religion often lack economic opportunities and decent work, and are overrepresented in
low paid, often exploitative jobs such as domestic work (see for example
A/HRC/27/68/Add.1, para. 83). In 2013, there were 53 million domestic workers
worldwide, 83 per cent of whom were women, many belonging to racial or ethnic
minorities.4
15.
According to the International Labour Organization, about half of the world’s
migrants are women.5 Poverty and discrimination are considered significant drivers of
migration (see A/70/59, para. 9). The majority of women migrant workers are being
channelled into traditionally female-dominated occupations, such as domestic work or in
the garment and textile industries abroad, where they often work in precarious conditions.
They are frequently excluded from labour law protection, affected by discriminatory
residence regulations, such as sponsorship systems, and face the risk of a number of human
rights abuses, including violence and forced labour.6
4
5
6
4
International Labour Office, Domestic workers across the world: Global and regional statistics and
the extent of legal protection, Geneva, 2013.
See www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/policy-areas/migrant-domestic-workers/lang-en/index.htm. In the absence of a universal legal definition, OHCHR, in its Recommended Principles
and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders, defines the term “international migrant” as
“any person who is outside a State of which he or she is a citizen or national, or, in the case of a
stateless person, his or her State of birth or habitual residence”.
OHCHR, Behind closed doors: Protecting and promoting the human rights of migrant domestic
workers in an irregular situation, New York and Geneva, 2015. See also Ray Jureidini, “Migrant
workers and xenophobia in the Middle East”, United Nations Research Institute for Social
Development, programme paper No. 2, December 2003.
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