UN (United Nations) Conventions

Violence against women migrant workers

Commission on Human Rights resolution 1998/17
(9 April 1998)

The Commission on Human Rights,Recalling all previous resolutions on violence against women migrant workers adopted by the General Assembly, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Commission on Human Rights, as well as the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women,Affirming the outcome of the World Conference on Human Rights, the International Conference on Population and Development, the World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth World Conference on Women, specifically as they pertain to women migrant workers,Emphasizing the need for accurate, objective and comprehensive information, as well as for a wide exchange of experiences and lessons learned by individual countries in protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of women migrant workers for policy formulation and joint action,Noting the large numbers of women from developing countries and from some countries with economies in transition who continue to venture forth to more affluent countries in search of a living for themselves and their families as a consequence of, inter alia, poverty, unemployment and other socio-economic conditions, and acknowledging the duty of sending States to work for conditions that provide employment and security to their citizens,Concerned by the continuing reports of grave abuses and acts of violence committed against the persons of women migrant workers by some employers in some host countries,Encouraged by some measures adopted by some receiving States to alleviate the plight of women migrant workers residing within their areas of jurisdiction,Recognizing the importance of continued cooperation at the bilateral, regional and international levels in protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of women migrant workers,

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary­General on violence against women migrant workers (E/CN.4/1998/74);

2. Invites Governments, particularly those of sending and receiving countries, in cooperation with relevant United Nations bodies, other intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations, to undertake further research on the causes and consequences of violence against women migrant workers, including the causes of outflow of women migrant workers, and to develop appropriate national data­collection methodologies that will generate comparable data as bases for research and analyses on the subject;

3. Encourages the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to consider developing a general recommendation on the situation of women migrant workers;

4. Requests the working group of intergovernmental experts on the human rights of migrants, within its mandate, to consider the problem of violence against women migrant workers and to elaborate recommendations to strengthen the promotion, protection and implementation of the human rights of women migrant workers;

5. Calls upon concerned Governments, particularly those of sending and receiving countries, if they have not done so, to put in place penal sanctions to punish perpetrators of violence against women migrant workers and, to the extent possible, to provide the victims of violence with the full range of immediate assistance, such as counselling, legal and consular assistance, temporary shelters and other measures that will allow them to be present during the judicial process, as well as establishing reintegration and rehabilitation schemes for returning women migrant workers;

6. Invites the States concerned, specifically the sending and receiving States, to consider adopting appropriate legal measures against intermediaries who deliberately encourage the clandestine movement of workers and who exploit women migrant workers;

7. Encourages States to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, as well as the Slavery Convention of 1926;

8. Requests the Secretary­General to submit to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-sixth session a comprehensive follow-up report on the problem of violence against women migrant workers, taking into account the views of States and based on the expertise of and all available information from authorities and bodies within the United Nations system, intergovernmental organizations and other sources, including non-governmental organizations;

9. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-sixth session under the appropriate agenda item.

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