A/HRC/24/43 identity papers and withhold their wages for “safe keeping”, which makes it very difficult for them to leave their employment. 13. During her mission to Lebanon, the Special Rapporteur was informed that migrant domestic workers made up 25 per cent of the Lebanese workforce and faced “physical abuse, a category encompassing physical suffering caused by working a minimum of 18 hours per day and physical assault … non-payment of wages, sexual abuse, moral harassment, food deprivation, sexual harassment, forced labour … physical threats, forced prostitution, non-renewal of papers and employment of minors” (A/HRC/21/41/Add.1, para. 9). The Governments of Madagascar, Philippines and Sri Lanka have since prohibited their citizens from working in domestic service in Lebanon due to these extremely poor conditions and the fact that there is virtually no system in place in Lebanon to protect domestic workers. Article 7 of the Lebanese Labour Code of 1946 specifically excludes domestic workers from its provisions (ibid., para. 21). 14. Children working as domestic servants experienced a variety of abuses, including physical and sexual abuse, long working hours, isolation and little to no access to education. According to the University of Nairobi, “child domestics [experience] significantly more psychological problems than other children (both working and nonworking children). Frequent headaches, eating problems, nightmares, tiredness and unhappiness were found to be very common amongst child domestics”. These children were found to be extremely vulnerable to becoming victims of slavery. 4 15. Discrimination based on race, ethnicity and caste also plays a role in increasing vulnerability to contemporary forms of slavery. Bonded labour in Asia, for example, disproportionately affects people with disadvantaged social statuses such as a low caste and the majority of forced labour victims in South America were from indigenous cultures, while strict social hierarchies in West Africa can dictate a person’s status as a slave. In many societies, racism is very common and typically the darker the skin, the more abuse that follows. 16. In Nepal, a debt bondage system, the labourers of which are known as Haliyas, can be found in the agricultural sector. Haliya means “one who ploughs”. Ploughing land is considered to be dirty and unskilled work that only lower-class citizens should perform, making it the work of “untouchables” or Dalits. 5 Haliyas are either paid very little for their work or paid only in small amounts of food. 6 Debt quickly accrues as workers take out loans for personal expenses,7 while landowners take advantage of them by charging exorbitant interest rates. According to a Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice report, “such discrimination is intentionally designed to keep alive a system of debt bondage”.8 17. In September 2008, the Government of Nepal officially liberated all Haliyas and pardoned their debts to landowners. However, in 2010, the Asia Human Rights Commission reported that most Haliyas were still working for their landlords, despite formal liberation. It is very difficult for former Haliyas to integrate into the labour force as 4 5 6 7 8 Bwibo and Onyango, The Final Report of Child Labour and Health Research (University of Nairobi, 1987). See Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, Caste-based Discrimination in South Asia: A Study on Nepal (New Delhi, 2008). Available from http://idsn.org/fileadmin/user_folder/pdf/Old_files/asia/pdf/RR_Nepal.pdf. Written statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission. “NEPAL: The Haliya bonded labour slavery system must be abolished without further delay”, 26 August 2010. Available from www.humanrights.asia/news/alrc-news/human-rights-council/hrc15/ALRC-CWS-15-072010/?searchterm=ALRC-CWS-15-07-2010. Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, Caste-based Discrimination. The Missing Piece of the Puzzle. Caste Discrimination and the Conflict in Nepal (New York, The Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice, 2005), p. 8. 5