Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 51
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Physical and psychological abuses reinforce dependency and, in extreme cases, become the very cause of domestic servitude (rather than a mere consequence). A domestic worker may, for instance, be subjected to abuse so severe that a psychological dependency on the perpetrator ensues (a phenomenon known as the "battered women syndrome" in the domestic violence context). The victim may be systematically beaten, insulted, humiliated and belittled to force her to submit to excessive working hours, unpaid overtime on rest days, etc.. Such abuse can reinforce other patterns of learned submission based on caste, ethnic or gender discrimination. Sexual violence, ranging from sexual harassment to repeated rape or the threat of trafficking into forced prostitution, is also employed as a tool of subjugation. The Special Rapporteur also received numerous reports of domestic workers being threatened with denunciation for crimes they did not commit if they complained about exploitative working conditions.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2010
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Paragraph number
- 51
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