A/HRC/11/6
page 25
on multiple oppressions of gender, class, nationality and ethnicity.80 Their vulnerability to
violence is particularly aggravated by working in poor conditions with low social status, living in
degrading housing situations, and lacking basic legal protections and opportunities for redress.
76. International institutions, employers, business, and Governments are complicit in the
human rights abuse and violence against migrant domestic workers since these do not enjoy the
basic labour protections guaranteed to other workers.81 Employers may evade domestic labour
laws, and Governments rarely monitor the observance of these in relation to domestic workers.82
Labour-sending countries often have an economic incentive to ignore their breach as they benefit
from high levels of remittances and do not wish to jeopardize their relations with relevant host
countries. Bilateral and multilateral agreements are insufficient in providing protection to
migrants, particularly women.83
77. Migrant women working in the sex sector and those trafficked for sexual exploitation face
particular vulnerabilities. Trafficking is the dark underside of migration and inseparable from
processes of globalization and trade liberalization.84 State policies that treat trafficked women as
criminals or mere victims in need of rescue and rehabilitation fail to take account of their
economic agency and their human rights in the prevention, protection and prosecution of
trafficking.
4. Post-crisis reconstruction and State-building
78. Increases in sexual and physical VAW as a result of armed conflict and humanitarian crises
caused by natural disasters are well documented. The large-scale rape of women has been a
military strategy in countless historical and recent conflicts.85 The causes of armed conflict are
80
Piper, Nicola, “Feminization of labor migration as violence against women: International,
regional, and local nongovernmental organization responses in Asia”, Violence against Women,
Vol. 9, No. 6 (2003), p. 724.
81
See the report of my mission to Saudi Arabia (A/HRC/11/6/Add.3).
82
Varia, Nisha, “Globalization comes home: Protecting migrant domestic workers’ rights”, in
Human Rights Watch World Report 2007, p. 1, available at http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k7/
essays/globalization/index.htm.
83
To date only 41 countries, mainly labour exporters, have ratified the International Convention
on the Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
84
Truong, Thanh-Dam, “Organized crime and human trafficking”, in Viano, E.C.,
Magallanes, J., and Bridel, L. (eds), Transnational Organized Crime: Myth, Power and Profit,
Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2003, pp. 53-69.
85
See Kelly, Liz, “Wars against women: Sexual violence, sexual politics and the militarized
State”, in Jacobs, S., Jacobson, R., and Marchbank, J. (eds), States of Conflict: Gender, Violence
and Resistance, London: Zed Books (2000), pp. 47-52.
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents