CRINMAIL 74

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NEWS AND REPORT ROUND-UP

Domestic Workers Convention enters into force

On 5th September 2013, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention came into force! There are some 15.5 million children engaged in domestic work, making up nearly 30 per cent of all domestic workers worldwide, according to the ILO. What the Convention does is set out the first global standards enshrining the rights of all domestic workers, including children, in international law. 

Despite their important contributions to their employers’ household and the global economy, domestic workers are among the most exploited and abused workers in the world, due to persistent discrimination, exclusion from labour laws, isolation, and the invisible nature of their work. Children are at even greater risk, due to their young ages, lack of awareness of their rights, separation from their family, and dependence on their employer. Many work more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, doing household duties and caring for children and elderly members of their employer’s household. These are denied education, and typically receive very low wages, if they are paid at all. And they often have little contact with the outside world as they work in private homes, so there is heightened risk of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. 

Leading the way towards committing to end this abuse have been the eight countries that have so far ratified the Convention - Bolivia, Italy, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa and Uruguay.  As the treaty came into force this week, ratifying States are now bound to implement its obligations. Specifically, the Domestic Workers Convention requires ratifying States to:

• take specific steps to eliminate child labour in domestic work;

• protect domestic workers from abuse, harassment and violence;

• set a minimum age for domestic work in line with international standards, and ensure that work by children above that age does not deprive them of schooling; and

• ensure that domestic workers above the legal age to work are entitled to the same rights as other workers, including daily rest and weekly days off, limits to hours of work, minimum wage coverage and overtime compensation.

CRIN is part of an NGO coalition campaign to encourage more governments to ratify the Convention. The “12 by 12” campaign was launched by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to seek 12 ratifications of the Convention in 2012. The campaign continues to organise worldwide and is now active in 92 countries. The NGO coalition sent a letter to Ministers of Labour urging governments to ratify the Convention.

Advocates and organisations can also encourage their government to ratify the Convention, or make a pledge to do so in 2013. This year offers a unique opportunity for governments to ratify, as the 3rd Global Conference on Child Labour to be hosted by Brazil from 8-10 October 2013 will bring together thousands of delegates and an estimated 140  governments to accelerate global action to eliminate child labour. A sample letter is available here. 

Good and bad news on inhuman sentencing

Good news reached us from the Maldives in August, where a 15-year-old rape victim who had been sentenced to receive 100 lashes for having premarital sex has had her sentence overturned by the High Court. Earlier in May, Marta Santos Pais, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, said the Maldives should abolish degrading and capital punishment against children, including as a form of criminal sentencing. Following a meeting with Ms Santos Pais, the Maldivian President Dr Mohamed Waheed “reiterated his commitment to end all forms of violence against children and promote and protect the rights of children.”

In 2011, UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, also urged the Maldives to stop publicly flogging women for having extramarital sex. Flogging is usually a form of punishment in the Maldives handed down by village chiefs acting as local judges. But according to a CRIN report on the inhuman sentencing of children in the Maldives, corporal punishment is lawful as a criminal sentence for persons under 18.

The good news continued in Yemen, where President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi halted the execution of an alleged juvenile offender. Over a month ago CRIN was alerted to the planned execution of Mohammed Samoum, a young man convicted of committing murder when he was 12 years old. Many organisations including UNICEF and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights sought to halt the execution by sending letters to the Yemeni President to that effect.

But the good news stops there, as there are still between 22 and 28 other people in Yemen who have been sentenced to death despite claiming they were under-18 at the time of their alleged offence. However, proving one’s age often proves difficult as many people in Yemen do not have birth certificates. In view of this, organisations have urged authorities in the country to establish a specialist medical committee to confirm the age of such prisoners, who if found to be juveniles at the time of their offence would be exempt from the death penalty. More details here.

Read about CRIN's campaign to end the inhuman sentencing of children here. 

Death tolls peak as State violence intensifies

The violence in Syria intensified this past month, as some 3,600 people were admitted to hospitals in the Damascus governorate following the alleged use of chemical weapons by security forces. Patients displayed symptoms such as blurred vision, difficulty breathing and convulsions, reports Médecins Sans Frontières (or Doctors Without Borders). Of those hospitalised, 355 died, including many children. The attack coincided with a visit to the country by a UN chemical weapons team to investigate similar reports over the past year. The Government has dismissed the reports of the chemical attack as “baseless”.

Also in August, reports emerged of ballistic missiles being used by the Syrian regime to kill civilians, including children. More than 100,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in Syria two years ago, including some 7,000 children. The violence has also caused the world’s worst refugee crisis in 20 years, with approximately two million people forced to flee the country, half of whom are children. UNICEF and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, described the figure as “a shameful milestone”. A further two million children have also been internally displaced.

Meanwhile in Egypt the death toll peaked mid-August, as well over 800 people were killed, the majority protesters loyal to ousted President Morsi, during clashes with security forces after protest camps were forcibly dispersed. Reports of sectarian violence also described how Coptic Christians began to be targeted by pro-Morsi supporters, with several killed, others violently beaten, and sacred sites desecrated, as well as churches and homes burnt down, all apparently in retaliation for their support of the former president’s ousting.

But if the continued protests in Egypt prove anything it is, as Egyptian activist Khalid Abdalla says, that civilians “will not accept authoritarian fascism as a status quo ... People will not accept being brutalised in this way, whatever their background, whatever their political opinion. And all of those political opinions need to be included in the future.” 

Hate crimes fuelled by police inaction

Russia’s anti-gay laws appear to have prompted a rise in violent crimes against LGBT persons or those perceived as such. Activists say that vigilante groups are now organising nationally, as they see their actions justified by federal and local laws banning the promotion of “non-traditional" relationships. Videos have emerged online of anti-gay groups luring gay youths and beating and humiliating them on camera. Police inaction in response to the violence is also a problem. Out of the 20 cases that were reported recently, only four were investigated and just one resulted in a court case. More on the story. 

Police investigations of crimes against LGBTI persons across the Americas are also plagued by deficiencies, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has warned. “The ineffectiveness of the state’s response fosters high rates of impunity, which in turn lead to the chronic repetition of such crimes, leaving the victims and their families defenceless,” the Commission said. In order to tackle the problem it has called on States to ensure authorities apply “due diligence in preventing, investigating and sanctioning violence against LGTBI persons, regardless of whether it occurs in the family, the community, or the public sphere, including education and health facilities.”  Prompting this expression of concern were the reports it received of the murder of 39 LGBTI persons or those perceived as such in July alone. Full story.

In an effort to raise awareness of homophobic and transphobic violence and discrimination around the world, the UN launched the "Free & Equal" campaign, which challenges negative stereotypes and disproves common misconceptions in the hope of speeding up a change in attitudes towards LGBT people.

Sexual violence in armed conflict

UN statistics released in July show an alarming rise in sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with 705 cases (619 of these being rape) registered this year. This contrasts with only 108 cases being recorded during the same period in 2012. While the attacks have mainly been against women and girls, there have also been a number of assaults against males. The upsurge in violence comes after the end of a nearly two-month-long ceasefire between the Congolese armed forces and M23 rebels. This recent violence has also forced more than 66,000 Congolese, approximately 55 per cent of whom are children, to seek refuge in neighbouring Uganda, with many refugee children recounting being separated from their parents amidst armed attacks in the middle of the night, resulting in the children having to make their own way to the Ugandan border.

The plight of male victims of sexual violence in conflict has also been noted in a recent UN forum, led by the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, with experts stating that while this issue is not new, boys and men continue to suffer in silence. It was noted that one immediate action should be to address the inadequacies in legal frameworks that ignore or criminalise male victims and allow perpetrators to enjoy impunity.

Meanwhile in Somalia, women and children living in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) are facing the “constant threat” of rape and sexual violence, Amnesty International warned at the end of August. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis are currently living in humanitarian camps after being displaced by decades of conflict and the 2011 famine, which killed nearly 260,000 people. According to figures recorded by the UN, there were at least 1,700 cases of rape in IDP settlements in the capital Mogadishu in 2012 alone. Nearly a third of survivors are children. In 70 per cent of cases, the perpetrators are reported to be armed men dressed in security forces uniforms. Those who report the violence to the police are often met with inaction and even further abuse and stigmatisation, causing some survivors to not approach the police at all. Full story. 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Abuse & neglect: 13th ISPCAN conference on child abuse & neglect
Organisation: International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
Date: 15-19 September 2013
Location: Dublin, Ireland
More details here.  

Genital autonomy: Promoting children's rights in Europe - recent developments
Organisation: Genital Autonomy
Date: 16-17 September 2013
Location: Keele, United Kingdom
More details here. 

Exploitation: Child & Adolescent health & well-being - safeguarding children from sexual exploitation
Organisation: Public Policy Exchange
Date: 19 September 2013
Location: London, United Kingdom
More details here.

Sexual violence: Evidence into action
Organisation: Sexual Violence Research Initiative
Date: 14-17 October 2013
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
More details here.

Violence: 19 Days of Activism - Prevention abuse and violence against children and youth
Organisation: Women's World Summit Foundation
Date: 1-19 November 2013
Location: N/A
More details here.

Bodily integrity: Whole bodies, whole selves - Activating social change
Organisation: Genital Autonomy et al.
Abstract submission deadline: 15 December 2013
Event date: 24-27 July 2014
Location: Colorado, United States
More details here. 

The Last Word

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