GAATW at the 59th Commission on the Status of Women: Advocating for the labour rights of migrant women
2015 is a critical year for advocacy on women's human rights. We are marking the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), and later in the year we expect to see the adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, replacing the Millennium Development Goals.
The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) will attend the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) starting this week at the United Nations in New York. The CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. This year, UN Member States, UN entities and civil society organisations from around the world will gather at the CSW as part of the review of the BPfA.
Two decades after its adoption by consensus, the BPfA remains the most comprehensive and progressive global policy framework for the advancement of women's human rights and gender equality. GAATW was involved 20 years ago and we are involved now – we were at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and we were an active member of the Civil Society Steering Committee that organised for the Asia-Pacific Regional Review of the BPfA last year.
However, the BPfA predates the adoption of the international law on trafficking in persons and is therefore of limited use in addressing human trafficking. GAATW understands trafficking as a multifaceted issue and the BPfA remains invaluable in our advocacy on women's human rights, migrants' rights, and labour rights. The draft SDGs are not yet up to the task of delivering a truly transformative development agenda for the next 15 years.
Our area of concern is how migration and the rights of women migrant workers have been side-lined in the review so far – and how they are addressed in the draft SDGs. To this end, GAATW, together with some of our Member Organisations and partners will be running an event at the CSW looking at the critical labour rights issues that migrant women are facing and what the SDGs need to address to realise these rights.
The labour rights of migrant women: From Beijing to Post-2015
The last 20 years have seen a growing disparity between the promise of Beijing for women migrants and their realities, something that we have seen very clearly in some of the Beijing+20 regional review meetings. Now with the Post-2015 Agenda, we see the UN Secretary-General's synthesis report adopt a negative framing of migration as a pressure on society causing 'serious strain' (para.157), but one reason for this is that States are not ensuring coherence between their migration policies and labour market needs, for example many domestic workers around the world are at risk of exploitation and excluded from the protection of national labour laws. This session at the CSW will draw on experiences in the Asia-Pacific Region of the challenges that migrant women encounter, their efforts to realise their human and labour rights, and the missed opportunity of the Asia-Pacific Beijing+20 Review that made no reference to migrants' rights and deleted reference to domestic workers, one of the largest drivers of women's labour migration.
12:30-2 pm, Monday 9 March, in V Hall at the Armenian Convention Center
Speakers:
- Suzanne Hoff, International Coordinator, La Strada International, the Netherlands
- Sandra Massiah, Sub-Regional Secretary for the Caribbean at Public Services International
- Kate Sheill, International Advocacy Coordinator, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women
Sponsored by:
- Global Fund for Women
- Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)
- Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC)
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
- The Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
- Women and Global Migration Working Group (WGMWG)
GAATW will be cosponsoring the following events:
Women's Labour Migration, Flawed Development Strategies, and the Way Forward, organised by the Women and Global Migration Working Group, and others. 1030-1200, Thursday 12 March, CCUN 2nd floor.
What's Sex Got to Do with It? Linkages Between Advocacy Around Sex Workers' Rights and Respect for Various Gender Identities, organised by the Urgent Action Fund, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and others. 1630-1800, Friday 13 March, CCUN 10th floor.
Current Challenges in Combating Human Trafficking 20 Years After the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Organised by NY Anti-Trafficking Network, and others. 1230-1400, Saturday 14 March, CCUN 8th Floor Boss Room. Please RSVP to register. More information here.
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