India: protest by domestic workers

Nationwide protest held by NDWM, NDWF and CFTUI under the National Platform Domestic Workers  to demand National Legislation for Domestic Workers, Cash transfer to the domestic workers affected by Covid crisis and to implement the Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme. 

Memoranda were submitted to the MPs, Labour Ministers in different States, Labour Commissioners and District Collectors. These are images from States of Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil nadu, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Orissa, Jharkand, Karnataka, Delhi, UP, Kerala, MP and Goa.

The nationwide protests received a lot of media coverage. In a press conference organized in Assisi Auditorium in Dimapur, the NDWM-Nagaland Region laid down four demands for the government. It demanded the recognition of domestic workers as workers, while seeking protection for them against all types of harassment. It also called for social security and access to benefits for the domestic workers and asked the State Government to include domestic workers in the schedule of employment and thus ensuring minimum wages entitlement. “Domestic Workers are essential workers, they are not carriers of diseases, do not discriminate them,” was the NDWM-Nagaland Region’s stand as they joined the nationwide campaign organized by the National domestic workers platform with its 34 unions.

       

    

EU Parliament adopts joint resolution on Philippines

The European Parliament adopted a joint resolution on the situation in the Philippines, including the case of Maria Ressa. Please find the text here. The resolution is a negotiated compromise between all 6 democratic political groups in the European Parliament. 

It highlights among others:

• the space for civil society is shrinking to an increasing extent the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Report of 2020, the Philippines is included in the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world for workers;whereas the Philippine trade union movement has complained about the repression of workers’ rights, including through ‘red-tagging’, disappearances and killings of labour leaders and trade unionists;
• Condemns all threats, harassment, intimidation, rape and violence against those who seek to expose allegations of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations inthe country, including human rights and environmental activists, trade unionists and journalists; 
• denounces the misuse of the law and judiciary systems as a means of silencing critical voices; 

It calls on the following:

• on the EU delegation and Member States’representations in the country to strengthen their support for civil society in their engagement with Philippine authorities, and to use all available instruments to increase their support for human rights and environmental defenders’ work, 
• Given the seriousness of the human rights violations in the country, calls on the European Commission, in the absence of any substantial improvement and willingness to cooperate on the part of the Philippine authorities, to immediately initiate the procedure which could lead to the temporary withdrawal of GSP+ preferences;
• Calls on the Philippine authorities to support the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and to ensure effective human rights due diligence processes for investment, development and business projects,especially with regard to large scale agribusiness acquisitions, extractive industries,infrastructure projects and cooperation involving the security sector; calls on companies based in or operating within the EU to strictly comply with the UNGPs and both international and national human rights law, as well as to conduct a meticulous and comprehensive due diligence process in relation to all their business operations and relationships within the country.

Looking back to look ahead: A rights-based approach to social protection in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery

The UN special rapporteur for Human rights recently issued a report on how the many measures governments have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are in line with a human rights based approach. From the two page summary:

"In this report, submitted in response to resolution 44/13 of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur argues that the world was ill-equipped to deal with the socioeconomic impacts of this pandemic because it never recovered from the austerity measures imposed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2011. The legacy of austerity measures is severely underfunded public healthcare systems, undervalued and precarious care work, sustained declines in global labour income shares, and high inequality rates coupled with average decreases in statutory corporate tax rates." ... 

"With public services in dire straits, one-off cash transfers are a drop in the bucket for people living in poverty, whether in developed, developing, or least developed countries. Maladapted, short-term, reactive, and inattentive to the realities of people in poverty, the new wave of social protection hype must hold up to human rights scrutiny. This report identifies eight challenges that must be addressed in order to bring social protection in line with human rights standards."

You can read the full report here.