Document type: Report
This report provides information on the measures taken by United Nations Member States and activities undertaken within the United Nations system to address violence against women migrant workers and ensure protection of their human rights. The report concludes with recommendations for future action.
Conclusions and recommendations:
- Action has been taken at the national, regional and international levels to combat violence against women migrant workers and protect women migrant workers’ human rights. The number of States parties to relevant international instruments has increased. Efforts have been made to strengthen national legal and policy frameworks and enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
- Many of the efforts reported related to the development of laws and policies on gender equality, violence against women and/or workers’ rights in general, rather than specific measures to address violence against women migrant workers. Some targeted measures to address violence against women migrant workers were reported, including specific legislation, national action plans, strengthening of contractual arrangements and control over recruitment agencies, information campaigns directed at migrant women, and services for women migrant victims of violence.
- Further monitoring and reporting is needed on the effectiveness of all actions taken and their impact on women migrant workers, including use of existing instruments, legislation, policies and strategies on gender equality, violence against women and workers’ rights, as well as specific targeted measures directed at migrant women.
- Violence against women migrant workers persists, and women continue to be subjected to violence and their rights violated throughout every stage of the migration cycle. Such violence takes many different forms, including physical, sexual, psychological and emotional violence, as well as economic abuse and exploitation. Undocumented women migrant workers remain particularly vulnerable to violence, exploitation and discrimination.
- States should continue to ratify and implement international instruments and review and revise national legal frameworks to ensure compliance with their international obligations. In respect of both documented and undocumented women migrant workers, this includes ensuring that legislation effectively protects their human rights and comprehensively addresses violence against them; occupations dominated by women migrant workers, such as domestic work, are regulated and include mechanisms for monitoring workplace conditions; women migrant workers have access to legal remedies and redress for violence against them and that they are not penalized for bringing complaints; recruiting and employment agencies are effectively regulated and monitored; perpetrators of violence are effectively prosecuted and punished; and migrant women victims of violence can apply for residency permits independently of an abusive employer or spouse. Mechanisms should be put in place to assess the effectiveness of relevant legislation in the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women migrant workers.
- States should ensure that migration policies are gender-sensitive, rightsbased and promote safe migration, and that all relevant policies and strategies ensure the protection of the human rights of all women migrant workers and comprehensively address violence against women migrant workers, including measures to prevent violence, prosecute perpetrators and protect and support victims. Such policies should incorporate measurable goals and timetables, as well as monitoring and accountability measures, provide for impact assessments and ensure coordination of action among all stakeholders through appropriate mechanisms. States should continue to conclude and implement bilateral and multilateral arrangements to ensure the protection of the rights of all women migrant workers and facilitate effective action in law enforcement and prosecution, prevention and capacity-building and victim protection and support, and to exchange information and good practices in combating violence against women migrant workers.
- Awareness-raising and other prevention efforts should continue and be reinforced. Education programmes and awareness-raising campaigns should be conducted in sending and receiving countries and directed at migrant women, recruiting and employment agencies, the media, as well as the population as a whole. Such programmes should include the promotion of the human rights of women migrant workers and safe migration, draw attention to existing laws and support for migrant women, and highlight the risks, dangers and opportunities of migration. Such programmes should be multilingual, where appropriate. Pre-departure orientation and training for potential migrants should be gender-sensitive, rights-based and standardized in sending countries. Training programmes for police, immigration officials, judicial personnel, social and health workers and others should be strengthened so that they are systematic and so that all persons responding to violence against women migrant workers have the capacity to do so effectively with full respect for the human rights of the victims.
- Many States have made efforts to strengthen support systems for victims of violence. States should continue to reinforce such efforts and should ensure that women migrant victims of violence are given the support and protection to which they are entitled in accordance with human rights standards, irrespective of their immigration status. Such support should be linguistically and culturally appropriate. Victims should be provided with information about their rights and empowered to claim those rights. They should be given support and protection, including legal, psychological, medical and social assistance; access to shelters; and compensation for damages. Efforts to assess the impact of measures taken should be enhanced.
- While States are making some efforts to collect data on gender and migration and to improve the knowledge base on violence against women in general, specific data on violence against women migrant workers is needed including on the different forms of violence, perpetrators and the context in which the violence takes place, be it the home, workplace or detention facility. Such data would facilitate the development of national policies and programmes, monitor their impact and assess progress in addressing violence against women migrant workers. Data collection and analysis should therefore be accelerated and qualitative research intensified to facilitate improved understanding and more effective responses to violence against women migrant workers.
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