Bonaventura Model United Nations
26th, 27th and 28th of September
2014
Research Report
Forum: The Economic and Social Council
Issue: Better representation for workers to ensure
workers’ rights, including the rights of females and migrant
workers
Student Officer: Fenna Timsi
Position: Deputy President
Introduction
Sustainable development and growth in general and urban sustainability in
particular require a combination of social, ecological and economic aspects. Labour is
the most important carrier to create sustainable social conditions for people. It has also
economic and ecological spinoffs. Cities and towns will not be sustainable if the
livelihoods of their citizens are not properly addressed.
Many workers still have to face a lot of challenges related to their rights. Because
the workers are unable to secure their rights, they have to live with the practical
implications on their living and working conditions, such as informality, casualisation,
child labour, bonded labour and discrimination against female and migrant workers.
Globalization, demographic shifts, conflicts, income inequalities and climate
change encourage and will encourage in the near future more workers and their families
to cross borders in search of employment and security. Today the media report every
day about refugees from countries such as Syria, Libya and Afghanistan fleeing from
conflict and hoping to find a better life in Europe. Decent employment and social
security are essential in such a life.
Migrant workers contribute to growth and development in their countries of
destination, while countries of origin greatly benefit from their remittances and the
skills acquired during their migration experience. Yet, the migration process implies
complex challenges in terms of governance, migrant workers' protection, migration and
development of workers.
Sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment
and decent work for all is a global goal to meet peoples’ right to work. This global goal,
reinforced by specific targets on the provision of social protection, eradication of forced and
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child labour, increasing productivity, addressing youth employment and the development of
skills, is the response to the economic and social needs of people and governments everywhere.
Even in rich countries work conditions may improve. A lot of people are unaware
of the level of discrimination against women that still exists in many forms, such as the
pay gap between men and women performing the same jobs. It was not long ago that
women were expected to become, for example, a housewife, chaperone or governess and
forbidden from having practically any occupation. Over the course of the last century,
this situation has changed extensively. In a lot of countries there were movements, such
as the women’s suffrage movement.
During World War 1 thousands of men left to fight and many women had to take
up jobs in factories, or other jobs that before had been exclusively for men. This had the
effect that after the war, many more countries, such as The United States, Poland, The
United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands, granted women suffrage, and the
right to work where they want.
Although there are made a lot of great advances in the fight against
discrimination against women, the fight seems far from won. Today a lot of women
receive little education or none at all and are forced to accept underpaid jobs as a result
of discrimination. Due to the fact that 70 per cent of the world’s population suffering
from poverty exists of women, they often lack basic human needs. This leaves women in
no ability to defend themselves and to stand up for their rights. This makes clear why
women are often manipulated and recruited for cheap labour.
Definition of Key Terms
Livelihood
Assets allowing individuals or communities to meet their basic short- and longerterm needs. These include earning a living, but also access to property and natural
resources, systems of savings, social networks and education.
Suffrage
The right to vote
Migrant
A migrant will be seen as a person whom chooses to move in order to improve
the future prospects of themselves and their families.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
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The Millennium Development Goals are the eight international development
goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in
2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration:
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To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
To achieve universal primary education
To promote gender equality
To reduce child mortality
To improve maternal health
To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
To ensure environmental sustainability
To develop a global partnership for development
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a proposed set of targets relating
to future international development. They are to replace the Millennium Development
Goals once those expire at the end of 2015. The SDGs were first formally discussed at the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June
2012 (Rio+20)
The Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
This declaration contains four fundamental policies:
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The right of workers to associate freely and bargain collectively;
The end of forced and compulsory labour;
The end of child labour; and
The end of unfair discrimination among workers.
General Overview
On 1 July 2003, the 1990 United Nations International Convention on the
Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
(hereafter: ICMR) officially entered into force as an instrument of international law that
will ensure protection and respect for the human rights of all migrants. Migrants are not
only workers, they are also human beings, was the basic thought of the Convention. It
didn’t create new rights for migrants but aimed at guaranteeing equality of treatment,
and the same working conditions, including in case of temporary work, for migrants and
nationals. Migrants should have access to a minimum degree of protection.
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No migrant-receiving state in Western Europe or North America has ratified the
Convention. Other important receiving countries, such as Australia, Arab states of the
Persian Gulf, India and South Africa have not ratified the Convention.
When a country ratifies an international treaty, it assumes a legal obligation to
implement the rights in that treaty. But this is only the first step because recognition of
rights on paper is not sufficient to guarantee that they will be enjoyed in practice. The
fear was that ratification of the ICMR would involve major costs of implementation and
monitoring.
The biggest obligation would be the provision of pre-departure information
campaigns and training sessions, the monitoring and imposition of sanctions on brokers
and recruiters operating illegally and the provision of embassy services to citizens
working abroad. Countries were also afraid they would lose jobs abroad and of other
sending countries picking up their workers’ share if they ratified. So far, countries that
have ratified the Convention are primarily countries of origin of migrants (such as
Mexico, Morocco, and the Philippines). For these countries, the Convention is an vehicle
to protect their citizens living abroad. What has to be done to secure the rights of
migrant workers and woman in the receiving countries? Does the new framework of the
Sustainable Development Goals offer a new opening to put these rights on the agenda?
Stagnation in securing rights is also occurring within the issue related to the
discrimination of women in the labour market. The millennial goals have brought
Important gains in some areas, such as new or amended legislation to eliminate
discrimination against women and other barriers; improved enrollment by girls in
primary and secondary education; and progress in reducing maternal deaths. But
advances were unacceptably slow in other vital areas, such as increasing women's
access to decent work or equal pay; no country has achieved gender equality.
The growing inequality was no theme in the millennium goals for 2015. The
targets concerning a sustainable livelihood of people was narrowed to access to
drinking water, sanitary and the conditions in the slums. Critics and several ngo’s saw
the millennial goals as a missed opportunity to put widening inequality and climate
change on the agenda. 2020 organisations signed up the campagne Action/2015 that
pleaded for education, social protection and decent work as an instrument to leverage
differences.
Hope has been set on the new Sustainable Development Goals that puts people in
the centre of sustainable development and the triade of ‘people’, ‘planet’ and ‘profit’. The
ambitions for 2030 aim at an inclusive economic growth, social development and
environmental protection that is beneficent to all, in particular the children of the world,
youth and future generations of the world without distinction of any kind such as age,
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sex, disability, culture, race, ethnicity, origin, migratory status, religion, economic or
other status.
The Sustainable Development Goals concerning the issue of Better representation
for workers to ensure workers’ rights, including the rights of females and migrant
workers:
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long
learning opportunities for all
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and
productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and
sustainable
Major Parties Involved
ILO
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a United Nations agency build to
deal with issues related to labour, particularly international labour standards, social
protection, and work opportunities for all. For the rights of migrant workers, ILO has
adopted several conventions, including Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions)
Convention, 1975 and United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in 1990.
To protect the right of labours for fixing the minimum wage, ILO has created
Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention in 1928, Minimum Wage Fixing
Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 and Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970
as minimum wage law.
UN Women
UN Women advocated for a stand-alone goal in the SDGs to achieve gender
equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment, which is grounded in human
rights and tackles unequal power relations.
UN Women stresses the need to address the structural causes of gender
inequality, such as unpaid care work, violence against women, limited control over
assets and property, and unequal participation in private and public decision-making.
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They believe that a stand-alone goal must establish minimum standards and push
change forward in the critical areas that are holding women back.
Previous Solutions
In the African region the ILO implemented a project in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal to
maximize the development benefits of migration. The project enhances the employability of migrant
workers by supporting vocational training institutions and improvement of training and employment
services in countries of origin. It promotes effective reintegration of migrants in national labour
markets upon return and also provides extensive training in financial literacy. In close collaboration
with public employment services, the project is developing tools (departure guide, return guide,
databases, etc.). In rural areas, it strengthens the capacities of workers’ organisations to provide
information to potential migrants and their families.
In order to provide the necessary technical support to national constituents to improve the
governance and protection mechanisms afforded to low-skilled women and men migrant workers in
different sectors (manufacturing, hospitality, health, construction, retail, tourism, and domestic
help), the ILO has developed a regional programme in the Middle East. The programme has three
major outcomes focusing on regional data management, research and policy reform; service delivery
to migrant workers; and capacity training programmes for key stakeholders.
Timeline
1981 The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) was instituted on 3 September 1981 and has been ratified by 189 states.
1990 The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families was signed on 18 December 1990.
1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (PFA). Adopted by governments at the 1995
Fourth World Conference on Women, this document sets forth governments’ commitments to
enhance women’s rights.
1998 the 86th International Labour Conference adopted the Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work.’
2000 UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security recognized that war
impacts women differently, and reaffirmed the need to increase women’s role in decisionmaking with regard to conflict prevention and resolution.
2003 The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and
Members of Their Families entered into force on 1 July 2003.
2015 The replacement of the Millennium Development Goals with the Sustainable Development
Goals
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