Kingston, Jamaica
In the lead up to the concluding debate of the 2011 Global Forum on Migration and Development to be hosted later in the year, UN Women, in collaboration with the Government of Jamaica and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is hosting a regional conference “Migrant Domestic Workers at the interface of migration and development: Action to expand good practice” from 7 to 8 September in Kingston, Jamaica.
Focusing on the need to implement protections for domestic workers, the Conference will be attended by key government actors and technical experts, civil society representatives and representatives of regional and international organizations. Participants will strongly call for the protection of domestic workers’ rights; and a gender sensitive checklist which will provide recognition and labour and social protections to domestic work; and guidelines for employment contracts for domestic workers.
Webcast
The following sessions will be streamed live at http://www.jis.gov.jm/videos/live:
- Wednesday, 7 September 2011, opening session and wrap-up session
- Thursday, 8 September 2011, wrap-up session and closing from 14:00 to 16:00 local time
Live video from your iPhone using Ustream
Why
- According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are approximately 53-100 million domestic workers worldwide, 83 percent are female.
- The Latin America and the Caribbean region accounts for 37.3 percent of the domestic workers labour force, second only to Asia. Of the 19.6 million domestic workers in Latin America and the Caribbean, 92 percent are women.
- In the Latin America and the Caribbean region, domestic work represents 11.9 percent of wage employment, the highest in the Global South.
- In spite of international standards such as the recently adopted ILO Convention on the Rights of Domestic Workers in June 2011, the General Comment on Migrant Domestic Workers by the Committee on Migrant Workers in December 2010, and the CEDAW General Recommendation on Women Migrant Workers, including Domestic Workers, in November 2008, domestic workers continue to be exploited and denied basic human right globally.
- According to ILO, domestic workers remain unprotected by labour laws in around 40 percent of the world’s countries, often excluded from labour and social protections.
The following participants are available for interviews:
- Jean D’ Cunha, Global Migration Adviser, UN Women
- Roberta Clarke, Regional Programme Director, UN Women Caribbean Office
- Shirley Pryce, President of the Jamaica Household Workers’ Association
- Ida Le Blanc, General Secretary of the National Union of Domestic Employees in Trinidad and Tobago
- Mr Rudenath Maraj, Assistant Chief Immigration Officer, Immigration Division, Ministry of National Security, Trinidad and Tobago
- Lisa Ann Grant, Director, Work Permit, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Jamaica
Media Contact:
- Sharon Carter-Burke, Communications Officer, UN Women, Barbados, sharon.carter-burke[at]unwomen.org
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