- This video is about an international campaign
for the rights of domestic workers.
Although there are as many as 67 million domestic workers
around the world,
they are largely hidden from the public eye.
They cook, they clean, they take care of children,
they do laundry, they do shopping,
they may care for elderly people in the household,
and because domestic workers are hidden
in private households,
they're uniquely isolated and very vulnerable
to all kinds of abuse.
This video looks at how domestic workers and their allies
have been able to shine a spotlight
on abuses and discrimination,
and work through the International Labor Organization
or ILO, to win a new international treaty
to guarantee their rights.
Part of what is discussed
is now advocates needed to research
not only the human rights abuses they wanted to address,
but also the change process itself.
For example, how are ILO treaties negotiated?
How can human rights advocates influence that process?
- Beginning in 2004
I began a series of fact-finding investigations
looking at abuses against domestic workers
migrating from countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
the Philippines, and Cambodia to wealthier countries
such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Singapore, and Malaysia.
Over a decade, I interviewed hundreds of domestic workers,
published several reports, and coordinated with migrants
and workers' groups to push for national and global changes.
The most common complaints were long working hours,
low and unpaid wages, lack of rest,
and not being allowed out of the workplace.
Many said they didn't have proper food or accommodation,
and were subjected to verbal abuse.
In a smaller but significant number of cases,
domestic workers faced horrific physical or sexual abuse,
or were in situations amounting to forced labor or slavery.
- [Presenter] This is what human rights organizations say
is taking place unchecked in a number of Lebanese homes,
abuse and violence against domestic workers.
Al Jazeera spoke to a Sri Lankan woman
currently living in a shelter.
Her story began when her employer found her
crying in her room.
Her identity is hidden for her own protection.
- ['Jessica'] My madam asked my why I was crying.
I said, "I haven't seen my family in two years
"and I ask you if I can go home to Sri Lanka
"but you won't give me an answer."
That's when she hit me with a plate and broke my nose.
- One question that we often hear is
why do these women keep on coming for this type of work
and there's a couple of reasons for that.
One is because they have no other options at home.
In many cases, they've taken out huge loans
just to migrate abroad, and there's such financial pressure
to repay those loans.
Almost all migrant domestic workers
in Asia and the Middle East
have their passports taken away from them.
If they run away from their employers, they are at risk
of being arrested and deported.
Often we think that terrible labor exploitation
is happening in direct violation to the law.
In the case of domestic work,
gaps in discrimination and labor laws often contributed
to abusive environments.
When we began our research, only 10% of countries
gave domestic workers the same labor protections
as other workers.
- Many governments do not recognize
domestic workers as workers.
They may consider them helpers,
or outside of formal employment
and so they exempt them from their laws.
- It is perfectly legal in many places for an employer
to ask their domestic worker to labor
for 15 to 18 hours a day seven days a week
with no benefits and usually at a wage
that's a fraction of the prevailing minimum wage.
- Some people think that domestic work is no big deal.
They don't see that they can be exploitative or abusive.
But think about performing those tasks, hour after hour,
from six o'clock in the morning till 10 o'clock at night,
never having a break,
never having even five or 10 minutes to yourself.
- In some countries, especially those with long histories
of labor movements and women's rights movements,
domestic workers have been organizing for decades.
For example, domestic workers in Latin America
have been a model to those in other regions
on creative campaigns and alliances
with other workers groups.
Domestic workers in Hong Kong
took advantage of meeting in churches and parks
on their days off to form trade unions that then fought
for a higher minimum wage and changes to immigration rules.
These movements have provided inspiration
for domestic workers in other countries
even though greater legal and practical barriers
have meant movement building has often been slower
and incremental.
In Singapore, domestic workers who had "good" employers
might get a day off to attend religious services
or computer classes
and use that space to meet other domestic workers
and share information.
In the Middle East
domestic workers smuggled in mobile phones
and kept in touch through text messages.
In the United States, domestic worker activists
would visit playgrounds and parks to reach out to nannies.
Whether through migrant organizations, child welfare groups,
or trade unions
domestic workers in different countries began to organize
often on specific campaigns that would advance their agenda.
For example, some groups would use media attention
to a case of brutal physical abuse to raise awareness
about the broader problem.
Others would focus on targeted campaigns
to win a minimum wage, or a weekly day off.
As these movements grew they began to form national
and regional networks
and identify the need for global labor standards.
In March 2008, domestic worker advocacy groups,
migrants' groups, and global trade unions
campaigned to get domestic work formally on the agenda
of the International Labor Organization or ILO.
This led to a decision to negotiate
a legally-binding treaty called a convention.
A convention for domestic workers
would be a real breakthrough.
For the first time it would oblige governments
to extend basic labor rights to domestic workers.
For example, a weekly day off, a minimum wage,
and overtime pay.
- The ILO's decision to consider a treaty
on domestic workers was a tremendous opportunity
but it also presented a real challenge.
Human Rights Watch, as well as many domestic workers
had little experience with the ILO system.
Most human rights treaties
are negotiated between governments
but ILO treaties are different.
They're negotiated between governments,
workers, and employers.
One of our first tasks
was to figure out how this process worked.
A year before negotiations began, I went to Geneva
to observe ILO negotiations and to talk to ILO delegates
about the process.
We learned a lot about who we needed to talk to
and started to build relationships
with influential governments, workers, and employers.
We asked a lot of questions about the timetable
for the negotiations so we could be sure
that we were providing delegates with the right information
at the right time.
- For Human Rights Watch, the negotiations on the convention
offered an opportunity to use our 10 years of research
and documentation on abuses against domestic workers
and to show the scope and severity of the problem.
We took summaries of our research to Geneva,
where we met with dozens of governments and employers
to highlight the problem and the elements
that the new convention should cover.
Some governments were really receptive.
Australia, for example, used our material
to brief their own Ministry of Labor staff.
Domestic workers themselves were essential
to the negotiations on the convention.
Many delegations to the negotiations from worker groups
were domestic workers themselves who knew what was at stake.
They spoke during the negotiations
giving compelling accounts of what they had experienced
and what the lives of domestic workers were like.
The negotiations lasted for two years.
During that time some governments emerged as champions,
some of them had strong national laws themselves,
and others just believed it was the right thing to do.
NGOs worked closely with these governments
to share recommendations and wording for various provisions.
- There were some real challenges along the way.
I remember early on
a government representative saying to me,
"You'll never get your convention."
He didn't think that there was enough support
for a treaty that would be legally binding.
But we and others showed how domestic workers
had been systematically left out of labor laws,
and how existing international law just wasn't enough
to protect them.
Some delegates didn't think it was possible
to monitor working conditions in private homes,
so we researched examples of how some countries did it.
That was important to be able to say,
"This isn't impossible, this is how it can be done."
On June 16,
the numbers of the International Labor Organization
adopted a new convention for domestic workers.
For the first time we now have global standards
that recognizes domestic workers are in fact entitled
to basic labor rights.
They have won a remarkable victory.
- Since the convention's adoption,
more than 20 countries have ratified it,
and others are in the process of doing so.
The process of the negotiations catalyzed
the founding of the first
international domestic workers union
and put domestic work high on the agenda
of the global labor movement.
The International Domestic Workers Federation
is continuing to coordinate among domestic workers' groups
across regions to mobilize more workers,
share good practices,
and campaign for these new global standards
to impact practice on the ground.
Since 2011, substantial legal advances have taken place
in at least 30 countries
at the national and subnational level.
For example, Argentina set maximum working hours
of 48 hours per week, a weekly rest period, overtime pay,
annual vacation days, sick leave, and maternity protections
in March 2013.
The Philippines passed a law in January 2013
requiring employment contracts, a higher minimum wage,
social security, and public health insurance.
Other countries including Zambia, Kenya, and Tanzania
have adopted measures to increase the minimum wage
for domestic workers.
These advances would not have happened without activism
and pressure by domestic workers themselves;
research and exposure about the abuses
domestic workers suffered;
alliances between domestic workers, human rights groups,
and trade unions; and strong champions
among some governments.
There is still much work to be done
to fight for comprehensive legal protections
in all countries, and especially the tough work
to ensure that these laws are enforced.
But already, these new standards are beginning to improve
the lives of millions of women and girls
around the world.
- [Jo] We need to make sure that these workers
receive the dignity, the decent treatment, the salaries,
and the respect that they deserve.