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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 23 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In agriculture, contemporary forms of slavery have reportedly occurred in many countries, involving crops such as sugar cane, cut flowers, fruit and vegetables, tropical nuts and commodities, for example, palm oil, cotton, cocoa, tobacco and beef. Production in the sector often relies on temporary or migrant labour and is characterized by complex contracting and subcontracting chains, as well as smallholder farming in some cases. Much of the work on remote farms and plantations is typified by excessive working hours, lack of compliance with labour laws, weak or non-existent labour inspections and corruption. Competition to produce at the lowest cost enhances the risk of contemporary forms of slavery being involved in agriculture, especially debt bondage in impoverished rural communities and among vulnerable categories of workers, such as indigenous people, minorities, migrants, women and children. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 78 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Some countries have introduced standard contracts for migrant domestic workers that provide certain minimum standards of employment. In 2007, for example, the United Arab Emirates introduced a standard contract for domestic workers that details entitlements relating to wages, rest breaks, payment of salaries and medical treatment. Lebanon followed suit in 2009. Standard contracts constitute a significant advance, although many still fall short of guaranteeing minimum international standards, including non-discrimination between different types of workers. The introduction of standard contracts can supplement, but not substitute labour legislation. Effective labour laws protect domestic workers by setting out penalties, monitoring systems, accessible complaint mechanisms and effective remedies that go beyond the inherent limits of contract law. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 93 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The criminalization of all forms of slavery and servitude, in line with States' international obligations, is one aspect of an effective response. At the same time, the issue is embedded in the wider challenge to ensure that domestic workers are finally provided with equal protection of their labour rights. Combating domestic servitude and protecting domestic workers' rights are two sides of the same coin. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Extend the equal protection of their labour laws to domestic workers, including migrant domestic workers, and end any discriminatory denial of entitlements regarding working hours, rest days, vacation, health care, maternity leave and protection from unfair dismissal. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 93 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [The criminalization of all forms of slavery and servitude, in line with States' international obligations, is one aspect of an effective response. At the same time, the issue is embedded in the wider challenge to ensure that domestic workers are finally provided with equal protection of their labour rights. Combating domestic servitude and protecting domestic workers' rights are two sides of the same coin. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Require that domestic workers receive a written contract in a language they can understand and that wage payments are made into a bank account. States should set a minimum wage for all domestic workers, including migrants, that should be above the poverty line of the country concerned and under no circumstances lower than the World Bank reference line indicating poverty (currently set at US$ 2 per day). Any additional payments in kind should not be counted towards the minimum wage. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 18 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Migrant workers are also disproportionately affected by contemporary forms of slavery. Many are especially vulnerable because they are employed far from their homes, lack language skills and familiarity with host country legal systems, may be undocumented, hired through recruitment agencies, are unprotected by laws in host jurisdictions, rarely receive adequate training, lack access to effective grievance mechanisms, are vulnerable to contract substitution, and/or are severely underpaid. Limitations on migrant workers' freedom of movement greatly increase their chances of becoming victims of contemporary slavery. Employers may confiscate their passports or identity papers and migrant workers are often employed in remote locations where they are dependent on their employers even for basic necessities. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 66 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Nevertheless, Government-run rehabilitation and reintegration efforts are not always effective. In these cases, other stakeholders can offer assistance. Unions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in sending and receiving countries have cooperated in order to facilitate the reintegration of victims when return home. In Nepal, where government reintegration services have been limited, two NGOs rehabilitate and reintegrate returned migrant workers. Pouraki Nepal was initiated by women migrant workers, while Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee advocates for the rights of male migrants. In-country research in Nepal also indicates that a new foundation to aid migrant workers has been established, with a free training centre in Kathmandu that helps rehabilitate and reintegrate returned migrant workers, including a counselling centre for female returnees. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 8 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The definition of debt bondage in the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery is sufficiently broad to cover the situation of workers trapped in debt bondage in systemic, archaic, feudal systems of slave-labour exploitation, as well as that of migrant workers from developing countries who leave their countries accruing debt to cover the costs associated with recruitment. Debt bondage is closely related to a number of forms of exploitation, including forced labour, the abuse of migrant workers, trafficking, and the worst forms of child labour. It has been observed that debt bondage is an area in which the relationship between trafficking and forced labour practices is particularly strong. Debt is considered to be a key source of vulnerability to trafficking and is one of the mechanisms used to force victims to work in exploitative or abusive conditions. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 19 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Globalization has created unprecedented opportunities for corporations to extend their operations across national borders, including to developing countries, in order to source the cheapest products and maximize profit. The demand for cheap labour meets a ready supply of workers from vulnerable groups: indigenous people, minorities, those considered to be from the "lowest castes" and migrants, especially those in an irregular situation. Women workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation in certain sectors given the nexus of gender discrimination and inequality. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 94 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Children are particularly vulnerable to domestic servitude, especially if they live with their employers and/or migrate on their own to find domestic work:] States should prohibit live-in domestic work for migrant or local children younger than 18 years, since it is typically inherently hazardous. Other domestic work of children who are younger than 15 or still completing their mandatory education should be prohibited to the extent that it interferes with their schooling. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 47 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The lack of traditional family and social structures in artisanal mining and quarrying communities increases the likelihood of child slavery. This is especially true for migrant and trafficked children working in this sector. They are often undocumented, do not receive any Government support or protection and are vulnerable to exploitation by mine employers. These communities are set up by people who for various reasons leave their traditional way of live and go to work in this sector. The communities are set up in an ad hoc manner with little or no regard to societal norms. These communities often attract those unable or unwilling to sustain traditional lifestyles or occupations (see A/HRC/18/30/Add.1). | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 54 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Migrant domestic workers commonly have a particularly precarious residence status, making them dependent on their employer and hence easy to exploit. A number of countries in Asia and the Middle East (where the system is known as kafalah) still tie a domestic worker's visa to a particular family. The domestic worker is only allowed to change visa sponsors without the employers' consent in exceptional circumstances that are, in practice, hard to invoke. A live-in worker who is dismissed can find herself from one moment to the next in the street with no income, legal residence status, family support network, return air ticket or right to seek another job. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Child slavery in the artisanal mining and quarrying sector 2011, para. 90 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The Special Rapporteur recommends that States ratify fully and implement all relevant international legal instruments to prevent child slavery such as the 1926 Slavery Convention, the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2011 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 36 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Certain countries also have laws that make migrant workers vulnerable to slavery-like practices. For example, in the Dominican Republic, temporary migrants must be provided with a "temporary worker card". This carnet only allows them "to perform the gainful activity for which they were admitted, for the authorized period of time and within the authorized area". Migration Law 285-04 stipulates that employers should "repatriate" workers once their carnets expire, giving employers the authority to deport workers. This creates a legal restriction on migrant workers' freedom of movement, links them to a specific employer and creates an inherent menace of penalty of deportation for leaving their jobs or workplaces. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In many countries in which slavery occurs, victims are poor, have few political connections and have little power to voice their grievances. These communities are normally marginalized and discriminated against as a result of their caste, race, gender and/or their origin as migrants or indigenous populations. In contrast, perpetrators may be wealthy, well-connected individuals who are able to influence policy and enforcement. This can result in corruption and a system in which there is little pressure on authorities to take action to combat exploitation. In Peru, gold generates tremendous profits and breeds corruption at every level, making it extremely difficult to combat labour abuses in illegal gold mining, including significant indicators of slavery. Such corruption facilitates the continued operation of illegal mines and gold-laundering and frustrates government enforcement efforts. In many cases, even when authorities have the will to carry out enforcement, they lack the training and resources to adequately do so. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 16 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In traditional forms of debt bondage in South Asia, patronage assumes an important role in the employer-employee relationship, in that the labour and the life of the debtor become collateral for the debt accrued. In some cases, such patronage perpetuates the cycle of debt from one generation to the next. However, this generational debt bondage has decreased over the years and has been replaced by a more individualized temporary and/or seasonal form of bondage that is exclusively economic and lacks the dimension of patronage. This form of debt bondage, also known as "neo-bondage", is considered to involve the seasonal movement of migrant workers within and between countries. Such workers are recruited by intermediaries who usually demand the payment of an advance and the settlement of wages at the end of the contract in exchange for their intermediation. Neo-bondage is similar to traditional forms of bondage, in the sense that the men, women and children vulnerable to such practices mainly belong to marginalized communities. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
| 2016 | |||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 35 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In Nepal, the Bonded Labour (Prohibition) Act, 2058 (2002) abolished bonded labour in the country. The 2002 Act makes null and void all the debts contracted by persons in debt bondage and requires the establishment of freed bonded labourer rehabilitation and monitoring committees in a number of districts. The 2002 Act provides for penalties and fines for perpetrators. In 2010, the Ministry of Land Reform and Management presented a haliya system (prohibition) bill, setting out the rights of freed haliya, and establishing a rehabilitation fund, a case litigation and appeal process, and provision for punishment. However, the bill has not yet passed into law. In May 2011, the Government issued the "Freed haliya rehabilitation and monitoring guidelines", which mandated district-level task forces to update the information on freed haliya and to distribute identification cards to them within six months of their being identified. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In Germany, subjecting a person under the age of 21 to debt bondage is penalized under the Criminal Code (section 233 (1)) with a term of imprisonment of between 6 months and 10 years. In Australia, the offence of debt bondage is penalized by 4 years' imprisonment, under section 271.8 of the Criminal Code. Furthermore, the Government of Australia has adopted the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019, which includes actions to combat debt bondage. Other measures include the setting up in 2015 of Task Force Cadena to tackle serious incidents of illegal work, visa fraud and worker exploitation, with a focus on industries such as food production and agriculture, and the establishment of the Ministerial Working Group Protecting Vulnerable Visa Holders to consider policy options to protect vulnerable foreign workers in Australia. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Servile marriage 2012, para. 47 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Honour-related killings are practised by some communities in their countries of origin or in the countries to which they have immigrated. Honour-related killings occur in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, where first-generation immigrants have passed the practice on to their children and grandchildren. Among some Asian communities, to guard the honour of a clan, marriages take place within the biradari system, a social caste system that divides people into separate communities and combines caste and honour with notions of total loyalty to the clan. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2012 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 96 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Migrant domestic workers are vulnerable to subjugation to servitude, since they often have a precarious migration status and face prejudices. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Diligently investigate credible allegations of abuse or exploitation committed by their diplomats and prosecute perpetrators. If no criminal action is taken by the sending State, host States should demand that diplomatic immunity is lifted or, failing that, declare the alleged perpetrator in serious cases persona non grata, while granting independent resident rights to the victim. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Challenges and lessons in combating contemporary forms of slavery 2013, para. 32 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Slavery and compulsory or forced labour are separate practices that are addressed independently in most international human rights documents. The Slavery Convention establishes that States should "take all necessary measures to prevent compulsory or forced labour from developing into conditions analogous to slavery" (art. 5). ILO Convention No. 29 (1930) concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour defines forced labour as, "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily" (art. 2). The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, ILO Convention No. 182 and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) all address forced labour. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2013 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 28 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Debt bondage in the context of labour migration and trafficking is a trend that can be seen across a number of countries and sectors. Migrant workers often become trapped in situations of bondage by borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates to pay recruitment fees or by taking an advance payment from intermediaries to secure work in the country of destination. Once migrants arrive in the country of destination they are often forced to work in harsh conditions to pay back debt they have accrued. Furthermore, workers are commonly subjected to threats and physical abuse, and in some cases face severe restrictions to their freedom of movement. The vast majority of people trafficked to countries in North America, Europe and the Middle East and to other developed countries are migrant workers who are trafficked into a variety of jobs including domestic work, agricultural work, prostitution and factory work and are often controlled through debt bondage and other mechanisms. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 29 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In the Middle East, migrant workers represent a significant portion of the labour force in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, particularly in the private sector. The individual sponsorship system, known as the kafalah system, which ties the employment and residency of a worker to a specific employer, is considered to be an arrangement that creates dependency of the worker on the employer and encourages abuses, including debt bondage. The fees charged by recruitment agencies for travel arrangements, labour contracts and other services trap migrant workers into bondage in their home countries. Consequently, migrant workers are often indebted upon arrival in the country of destination. Furthermore, practices such as the confiscation of passports, the non-payment, underpayment or delayed payment of wages, and contract substitution are considered to contribute to debt bondage. Those who are most susceptible to debt bondage in these countries are Asians who work as migrant labourers and domestic servants. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 41 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Bonded labourers commonly belong to minority groups vulnerable to discrimination, such as certain racial groups, women, indigenous people, people of "low" caste and migrant workers. The discrimination suffered by these groups frequently prevents them from accessing education, health care, clean water and credit. Furthermore, demands from bonded labourers for fair treatment, or their resistance to exploitation, often cause them to face social sanctions and boycotts that further restrict their possibility of overcoming discrimination or of leaving the situation of bondage. The discrimination faced by bonded labourers comes in some cases not only from society at large but also from other members of the same minority groups. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery 2016, para. 43 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Precarious labour migration has been identified as a driver of debt bondage. Migrant workers are also often vulnerable to exploitation because of barriers they face in accessing the protections provided to nationals of the country to which they have migrated and because of generalized social hostility towards foreigners. The choices made by migrants about securing employment abroad are often based on misinformation and false promises concerning conditions of employment in destination countries. A lack of financial literacy can lead to a poor understanding of the loans taken out to pay fees, and a lack of alternatives in their home countries can incentivize migrants to take out loans on which extortionate rates of interest are charged. Furthermore, a lack of effective regulation of the recruitment sector, unethical practices by unscrupulous recruiters, late payment or the withholding of payment by employers, and exorbitant charges for services can worsen situations of debt bondage. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 96 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Migrant domestic workers are vulnerable to subjugation to servitude, since they often have a precarious migration status and face prejudices. The Special Rapporteur recommends that States:] Foster their multilateral and bilateral cooperation to accredit and regulate recruitment and placement agencies. Bilateral agreements on migrant domestic work should be binding, based on international standards; guarantee non-discrimination compared to local workers and provide for effective mechanisms to ensure compliance. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 97 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Domestic workers have made impressive gains in organizing themselves across the globe. More efforts are needed, however, to empower individual workers. The Special Rapporteur recommends:] National authorities, cooperating with domestic workers associations, unions and national human rights institutions, should launch campaigns to inform prospective and current domestic workers what rights they have and how they can enforce them. Information has to be provided in places and languages accessible to all domestic workers, including migrants. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Eradicating contemporary forms of slavery from supply chains 2015, para. 14 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The right to be free from slavery is a peremptory norm of international law from which no derogation is permitted and creates an erga omnes obligation on all States to protect this right. It is entrenched in the Slavery Convention of 1926 and has been incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 4), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 8 (1)) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (art. 11 (1)). | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2015 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 55 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Reporting on domestic slavery, the Council of Europe has highlighted the structurally similar case of women in arranged transnational marriages, also referred to as "mail-order brides". Faced with an unfamiliar partner and sociocultural context, such women can easily find themselves in situation of abuse, exploitation, and, in extreme cases, domestic and sexual servitude. Their visa status typically depends on the continuation of the arranged marriage for at least a certain number of years. In order to lessen dependencies, some countries have created a special legal residence status for divorced or separated migrant women who can prove that they were severely abused or exploited by their partner. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 98 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | [Normative action at the international level reflects has long been a reflection of the indolence of many States to provide effective protection against domestic servitude at the national level. The Special Rapporteur therefore welcomes the fact that the ILO finally resolved to adopt a convention on decent standards for domestic work and hopes that recommendations contained in this report will be reflected in the Convention. The Special Rapporteur recommends that:] States cooperate within the ILO to ensure that the future convention on decent standards domestic work is based on the major human rights treaties and entails specific commitments to regulate all aspects of recruitment, placement and work, including with regard to migrant domestic work. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 | ||
Manifestations and causes of domestic servitude 2010, para. 81 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The migrant domestic sector is particularly underregulated. Many countries have left the organization of this sector entirely to transnational recruitment agencies who are often more concerned with satisfying employers' needs than protecting the human rights of the human beings they recruit. In some cases, the authorities have not even put in place basic measures, such as a registration system that records which recruitment agency is bringing in which domestic worker and who that person ends up working for. Problems are often handled by immigration authorities, which lack the technical expertise to appropriately address them. | Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2010 |