International Organizations

From the press release:

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) presents its report on the fundamental rights of irregular migrants who are employed as domestic workers in the EU. Most irregular migrants in domestic work are women. The report shows that their irregular immigration status, coupled with challenges in regulating domestic work more generally, makes this group very vulnerable to exploitation, including cases of physical abuse. Typical forms of exploitation include low pay, often having to work excessive working hours, and usually not being able to obtain compensation for work-related accidents.

The report is based on in-depth interviews with domestic workers, civil society organisations and trade unions from across ten EU Member States and covers their enjoyment of fundamental rights in five areas: working conditions, dismissal, freedom of association, redress mechanisms and family life.

Main findings:

• Domestic work undertaken by employees is typically less regulated by legal standards and enforcement mechanisms (such as labour inspectorates) than other forms of employment.
• Domestic work is typically carried out by women - and often migrant women in an irregular situation - who are vulnerable to multiple discrimination because of gender-based forms of violence, including sexual assault, as well as racial discrimination.
• They typically work for long hours and low pay. Rest periods, paid holidays, and paid sick leave are often not provided, even if available under legislation.
• A number of physical and mental occupational illnesses were reported, which are exacerbated by the situation of irregular migrants. The threat or fear of dismissal, lack of affordable health care, and lack of paid sick leave was found to deter individuals from seeking medical assistance or taking time to recover - even where injury resulted from work accidents. This sometimes leads to chronic injuries or permanent disability.
• Individuals seeking access to justice for exploitation or abuse face several barriers. Principally they are deterred by the fear of public bodies alerting the immigration authorities, who may then deport them. Because their employment is often not formalised through a written contract, they also face difficulties in producing evidence of an employment relationship. Similarly, because they work in a domestic context, it can be challenging to prove alleged abuse, for example through a witness.

The report suggests several ways forward, including:

• The introduction for all domestic workers of clear standards that: impose limits on payments in kind; ensure that where a minimum wage exists in national law, it also covers domestic workers; guarantee rest and sick leave; and create safe and healthy working conditions, as provided for by the ILO Convention adopted in June 2011.
• Extending supervision by labour inspection authorities to the domestic work sector.
• The introduction of targeted migration programmes where demand for domestic work is found to exist, which is not met by the available workforce. This would ensure that these workers have a regular migration status and so can enjoy better protection.
• Facilitate access to justice by ensuring greater support for trade unions and non-governmental organisations which play a key role in providing legal assistance for victims of abuse or exploitation.

From the UN News Centre:

Millions of women worldwide continue to experience injustice, violence and inequality in their homes, the workplace and public life, according to a new United Nations report that calls on governments to take urgent action to ensure real equality between the sexes.

“Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice” is the first major report by UN Women, the agency launched earlier this year to spearhead the world body’s efforts towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The flagship report states that the past century has seen a “transformation” in women’s legal rights, with countries in every region expanding the scope of women’s legal entitlements. “Nevertheless for most of the world’s women, the laws that exist on paper do not translate to equality and justice,” it adds.

It also points out that while 139 countries and territories now guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, women continue to experience injustice, violence and inequality in their home and working lives.

UN Women calls on governments to take a number of steps to end the injustices that keep women poorer and less powerful than men in every country in the world.

These include repealing laws that discriminate against women; employing more female police, judges, legislators and activists on the “frontline of justice delivery;” and investing in “one-stop shops” where women can access justice, legal and health services in one place.

Among the findings of the report is that while domestic violence is now outlawed in 125 countries, 603 million women worldwide live in countries where it is not considered a crime. Also, women are still paid up to 30 per cent less than men in some countries, and some 600 million women are employed in vulnerable jobs that lack the protection of labour laws.

The report also finds inadequate enforcement of existing laws across the board. Many women, says UN Women, shrink away from reporting crimes due to social stigma and weak justice systems.

The prohibitive costs and practical difficulties of seeking justice, from travel to a distant court to paying for expensive legal advice, leads to high drop-out rates in cases where women seek redress, especially on gender-based violence, the agency notes.

“By changing laws and giving women practical support to see justice done, we can change society and ensure women and men enjoy real equality in the future,” concludes the report

Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, secured the top job at the International Monetary Fund — the first woman to ever do so.

Read more about the new head of the IMF.

Description from CNN.com:

The department's 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report assesses efforts by 184 governments worldwide to fight sexual exploitation, forced labor and modern-day slavery.

The annual report, considered one of the most comprehensive analyses of worldwide human trafficking, ranks countries in three "tiers."

The State Department says 27 million people are victims of human trafficking worldwide, and approximately 100,000 of those victims are in the United States.

The report looks at how traffickers operate, what kinds of victims are exploited, and most importantly, what governments are -- and in some cases are not -- doing to protect vulnerable people.

...

The trafficking report describes the psychological strategies that pimps use to gain control over the millions of victims exploited in the global commercial sex trade.

The report also includes data on trafficking, including forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, child labor, child soldiers and child sex trafficking.

In addition to detailing problems many countries face, the report singles out "heroes" who -- sometimes at great threat to their own safety -- fight trafficking.

From the press release: 

20 JUNE 2011 | GENEVA - The first State of the World's Midwifery report confirms the critical role midwives play in improving maternal and newborn health and survival. It highlights the shortage of skilled midwives in many low-income countries, stressing the need to train and deploy more midwives in all parts of a country - especially remote and rural areas.

The report, commissioned and coordinated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), was launched at the Triennial Congress of the International Confederation of Midwives in Durban, South Africa today.

Every year 358 000 women and 3.6 million newborn babies die due to largely preventable complications during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. In addition, every year, nearly 3 million babies are stillborn. Most of these deaths occur in low-income countries and happen because women – often poor and marginalized – have no access to functioning health facilities or to qualified health professionals, notably midwives and others with midwifery skills.

The report surveyed 58 countries, which together represent just under 60% of all births worldwide, but 91% of all maternal deaths. Among the 38 countries most desperately in need of midwives, 22 need to double the workforce by 2015; seven need to triple or quadruple it; and nine countries - Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan - need to dramatically scale up midwifery by a factor of between 6 and 15. The report estimates that countries require a minimum of six skilled birth attendants per 1000 births if they are to achieve the aim of 95% coverage.

Increasing women’s access to quality midwifery has become a focus of global efforts to realize the right of every woman to the best possible health care during pregnancy and childbirth. It is also at the heart of three health-related Millennium Development Goals – reduce child death (MDG 4), improve maternal health (MDG 5) and fight AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG 6).

 From the news release:

Regarding human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, the Council requested the High Commissioner to commission a study to be finalised by December 2011 to document discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, in all regions of the world, and how international human rights law could be used to end violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also decided to convene a panel discussion during the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council, informed by the facts contained in the study commissioned by the High Commissioner.

From the press release: 

From the press release:

 From the Executive Summary:

Power relations and gender roles within households and the community are culturally and geographically specific. The impact of the CTs on women depended very much on the setting. Overall, there were many positive benefits for women, including  increased self esteem and confidence to handle money and an acceptance by men that women are capable of playing such a role. On the whole, intra-household relations improved as a result of the CTs targeting women and there were indications that some of these improvements may last beyond the length of the programme. 

However, there were also clear challenges. Both the community implications of how the CTs were implemented and the effect of the CTs on traditional coping strategies were a significant worry for some beneficiaries. Community relations did not necessarily improve, and in some cases worsened, as a result of the programmes. The CTs also tended to reinforce rather than challenge women’s traditional household and social roles. CTs were perceived as helping women to simply perform their roles ‘better’. In this context, women are expected to carry the burden of food provision and to manage the payments responsibly, often in the face of multiple pressures and claims. Likewise male roles were imbued with negative stereotypes, which will have damaging effects on the potential for long-term changes in gender relations. Complex social dynamics, such as polygamy, was not accounted for and the distribution of food within households remained highly gendered and hierarchical.