UCC to host conference on migrant domestic workers
The conference will take place in the Aula Maxima, (Main Quadrangle) UCC from 2.30pm to 6.30pm on Friday 19 October.
The conference will take place in the Aula Maxima, (Main Quadrangle) UCC from 2.30pm to 6.30pm on Friday 19 October.
The conference, which is hosted by the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, UCC, and the Irish Human Rights Commission, will be opened by Kathleen Lynch, TD, Minister for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People. The keynote address will be delivered by the Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the OSCE, Ms Maria Grazia Giammarinaro. Other plenary speakers will include representatives from UN Women (the UN Entity for Promotion of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment), the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the Open Society Justice Initiative, Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, and leading US, Irish and UK academics.
The conference will address the often neglected area of forced labour, domestic servitude and trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation. According to statistics from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), at least 52.6 million women and men over the age of 15 are engaged in domestic work as their main occupation. Women comprise 83% of the total domestic workers worldwide. Due to the largely unregulated and hidden nature of domestic work, the total number of domestic workers may be in the region of 100 million, significantly higher than the ILO figures. Described as ‘modern day slavery’, the inequalities and exploitation that typically characterises domestic work includes low wages, unpredictable working hours, limited access to social security and an ambiguous employment status.
More extreme types of exploitation and abuse to which domestic workers may be subjected include physical and sexual abuse, rape and confinement, forced labour and trafficking. The emergence of ‘global care chains’ reflects the increasing reliance in Europe on migrant domestic workers to undertake caring work, including child care and elder care. This phenomenon, which has resulted in a drain of care workers from the global South has been described by some as ‘emotional imperialism’ and as ‘unfinished business’ for the feminist movement.
Professor Siobhán Mullally, UCC, comments: “Migrant domestic workers are isolated in domestic households, and are extremely vulnerable to exploitation. Labour standards and inspection regimes typically do not apply to domestic work. Migration law regimes tie the worker to an employer, increasing the risk and likelihood of physical, sexual and psychological abuse. This conference brings together representatives of leading European and UN human rights bodies, world class academics and NGOs, working to combat forced labour, trafficking and domestic servitude. In the context of European Anti-Trafficking Day, it will shine a light on the often neglected area of forced labour and exploitation of domestic workers worldwide.”
The conference will take place in the Aula Maxima, (Main Quadrangle) UCC from 2.30pm to 6.30pm on Friday 19 October.
For further information: contact Professor Siobhán Mullally, s.mullally@ucc.ie , Tel. 086 884 7027.
Details and programme for the conference are available at: http://www.ihrc.ie/newsevents/events/2012/10/19/migrant-domestic-workers-gender-equality-and-human/. For bookings contact ccjhr@ucc.ie (Noreen Delea) or Tel. 021 490 2728