POLICY BRIEF: The rights of women migrant domestic workers | Gender-responsive employment contracts

This document aims to inform Sri Lanka’s national policy on the protection of rights of women migrant domestic workers. Guided by normative commitments and international standards on gender equality and migrant labour rights, the document captures the concerns of a diverse set of stakeholders, including government officials, civil society representatives, and the most marginalized women migrant domestic workers. It reviews existing policies and programmes and captures good practices to recommend strategies for realizing the rights of Women Migrant Domestic Workers to decent work, income security, and economic autonomy.

This policy brief explores how gender-responsive employment contracts can be better implemented in multiple ways, including as an ethical recruitment tool during the recruitment process, a pedagogical tool to raise rights-based awareness among women migrant domestic workers and as a model contract in the Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding that safeguard Women Migrant Domestic Workers’ rights.