Violence against women migrant workers
A/RES/74/127
integration into the host society, as well as during their return to and reintegration in
their countries of origin,
Expressing deep concern at the continuing reports of grave abuses and violence
committed against migrant women and girls, including gender-based violence, sexual
violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, domestic violence, gender-related killing of
women and girls, including femicide, racist and xenophobic acts and expressions,
discrimination, abusive labour practices, exploitative conditions of work and
trafficking in persons, including forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar
to slavery, while taking into account the particular difficulties in accessing justice that
may be faced by women migrant workers,
Recognizing that one of the key causes of the labour exploitation suffered by
migrants, including women migrant workers, is linked to the unscrupulous practices
of some recruitment agencies and informal brokers that charge high recruitm ent costs
and related fees, and noting with concern the reports of abuse committed by some
recruitment agencies and employers,
Recognizing also that violence against women and girls, in particular migrant
women, is rooted in historical and structural inequality in power relations between
women and men, which further reinforces gender stereotypes and barriers to the full
enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights,
Recognizing further that the intersection of, inter alia, age, class, race, disability
and gender-based and ethnic discrimination and stereotypes can compound the
discrimination faced by women migrant workers, and that gender-based violence is a
form of discrimination,
Reaffirming the commitment to respect, protect and promote the human rights
of all women, including, without discrimination, indigenous women who migrate for
work, and in this regard noting the attention paid in the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 22 to the full protection and guarantees against all
forms of violence and discrimination against indigenous women, as appropriate,
Stressing the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that may be faced
by indigenous migrant women, who suffer at a disproportionately high rate from
domestic violence and sexual abuse, and as victims of trafficking in persons,
Concerned that many migrant women who are employed in the informal
economy and in less skilled work are especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,
underlining in this regard the obligation of States to protect the human rights of
migrants so as to prevent and address abuse and exploitation, observing with concern
that many women migrant workers take on jobs for which they may be overqualified
and in which, at the same time, they may be more vulnerable because of poor pay and
inadequate social protection, and in this regard taking note of the adoption by the
International Labour Conference on 12 June 2015, at its 104th session, of
Recommendation No. 204 concerning the transition from the informal to the formal
economy,
Concerned also that migrant women in informal employment may benefit from
only limited legal protection of their labour rights, increasing the risk of exploitation,
Emphasizing the need for objective, comprehensive and broad-based
information, including sex- and age-disaggregated data and statistics, indicators for
research and analysis, and a wide exchange of experience and lessons learned by
individual Member States and civil society in the formulation of targeted policies and
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Resolution 61/295, annex.
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