Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers' rights and opportunities through the SDGs

Date: Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Women make up almost half of migrants in the ASEAN region. They are largely concentrated in informal, low paid labour including in agriculture, manufacturing, domestic work, construction and entertainment. Irregular migrants and migrant domestic workers are at particular risk of violence, forced labour and trafficking due to their status and isolation. The Sustainable Development Goals 5 (Gender Equality), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 10 (Reduced Inequality) and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutes) aim to address problems facing women migrant workers. This brief analyzed how ensuring safe and migration for women migrant workers can contribute to achieving the SDG goals and how the Safe and Fair Programme will respond to the issue.

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

Date: Friday, June 21, 2019

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.

Returning Home: challenges and opportunities for women migrant workers in the Nepali labour market

Date: Thursday, March 28, 2019

The present study shows that while women largely migrate for economic reasons, they remain unable to improve their economic status upon return to Nepal due to traditional restrictions to their mobility and their disproportional share of household responsibilities. Furthermore, the participation of returnee migrant women workers in Nepal’s labour market is constrained by multiple work burdens created by the gendered division of household labour and care responsibilities. The findings...

Empowering Women Migrant Workers from South Asia: Toolkit for Gender-Responsive Employment and Recruitment

Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The Toolkit provides comprehensive guidance on ensuring the protection and promotion of the rights of women migrant workers throughout the labour migration cycle. The Toolkit includes a policy brief series that describes the process of establishing national, bilateral and regional policy protections. The Gender-responsive Guidance on Employment Contracts supports relevant stakeholders to ensure these policies and protections are reflected in employment contracts. The Gender-responsive Self-assessment Tool for Recruitment Agencies provides recruiters with information on how to protect and promote the rights of women migrant workers in practice, throughout the migration cycle....

Gender-responsive Guidance on Employment Contracts

Date: Monday, March 18, 2019

Domestic workers are often partially or fully excluded from national labour laws and related protections. The lack of comprehensive legal protection for domestic workers means employment contracts play a critical role in establishing protections of their rights. Without definitive legal principles to govern the employment relationship with their employers, domestic workers report working long hours without overtime payment, sufficient weekly rest or holidays. They may experience non-payment ...

Gender-responsive Self-Assessment Tool for Recruitment Agencies

Date: Monday, March 18, 2019

This self-assessment tool was developed to ensure employers, governments and recruitment agencies have policies, codes of conduct, systems and training in place that effectively meet the needs of women migrant workers. The tool was developed by UN Women, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), building on research into the experiences and perspectives of migrant women, and on international human rights standards and commitments. The tool provides a practical...

Migrant Workers in South Asia and the Middle East: Promoting the Rights of Women Migrant Workers through Employment Contracts

Date: Friday, March 15, 2019

[POLICY BRIEF - 2] Promoting the Rights of Women Migrant Workers through Employment Contracts identifies and compares existing contract provisions in the South Asia - Middle East corridor and summarizes strengths and gaps in protection in line with common right violations reported by women migrant workers themselves. It makes recommendations on addressing these gaps by creating enforceable rights-based, gender-responsive employment contracts...

Migrant Workers in South Asia and the Middle East, a policy brief series

Date: Friday, March 15, 2019

This three-part Policy Brief series identifies actions to develop and implement effective, rights-based and gender responsive protections for women workers migrating from South Asia to the Middle East. The policy briefs address three key stages during which protections for women migrant workers are developed, implemented, and monitored. Making International Labour Migration Governance Gender Responsive outlines the role of labour migration governance and policies in determining the living and...

Migrant Workers in South Asia and the Middle East: Making International Labour Migration Governance Gender-Responsive

Date: Friday, March 15, 2019

[POLICY BRIEF - 1] Implementing Gender-Responsive Employment Contracts analyses current methods used to monitor the implementation of contracts and makes recommendations to strengthen accountability against the terms of employment contracts...

Migrant Workers in South Asia and the Middle East: Implementing Gender-Responsive Employment Contracts

Date: Friday, March 15, 2019

[POLICY BRIEF - 3] Implementing Gender-Responsive Employment Contracts analyses current methods used to monitor the implementation of contracts and makes recommendations to strengthen accountability against the terms of employment contracts...