We applaud, encourage and pledge our continued support in the attention you have devoted to the situation of migrant domestic workers, and in particular your organization of the Day of General Discussion at your last session in October, and the decision to take those results forward in the elaboration of the Committee's first General Comment under the Convention.

We believe that this is the right issue, the right time and that this Committee is the right body for this work: with precisely the right mandate, the right expertise and broad geographic origin that so many Committee members share with so many migrant workers looking to the Convention and Commitee for protection.

We welcome your release today of the preliminary draft of the General Comment, and look forward to working further with you as you continue and broaden the drafting process in the months leading up to adoption, anticipated for your next session in November.

Although we have not yet seen or reflected upon the released draft, may we offer three overall perspectives and describe our firm committment to work with the Committee on the next steps.

1. The Comment should offer practical guidelines, applying the Convention rights to the existing situation of migrant domestic workers, not just describing the situation of repeating the rights.
2. The General Comment has enormous value to offer.
3. The General Comment is first a work of this Committee for the purposes of implementing this Migrant Workers' Convention.

In next steps, we and our members are committed to engage with you—as we did in the organization of the Day of General Discussion—in communication, consultation and collaboration on the draft to achieve a General Comment on migrant domestic workers that is both strong and effective.  At the annual General Assembly of the NGO Platform this week, our members committed specifically to:

1. Continue to work with the Committee on the draft itself, including consultations involving Platform members, other NGOs, labour and other migrant rights-friendly actors in Bangladesh, Burssels, Geneva, London, New York and the Philippines, and collaborating with the Committee and Secretariat in an on-line consultation, if possible;
2. To broaden awareness of the Committee's work on the Comment at events connected to important processes, such as the ILO conference in June, the UN Human Rights Council and the GFMD in November; and
3. To strategise input of the draft and final comment to other processes, in particular the new ILO Convention.

To read the statement in its entirety, please see the pdf document below.

Solid steps forward on protecting migrant domestic workers (655.77 KB)