The Global Domestic: Mapping Decent Work in International Dialogues

Abstract

The 2010 and 2011 sessions of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva marked a poignant moment for domestic worker organizations and human rights advocates because they placed “Decent Work for Domestic Workers” at the centre of their tripartite dialogue. For the first time, the possibility of establishing a global set of standards for domestic labour materialized through the inclusion of this topic as one of two standard-setting agenda items within the 99th and 100th annual Conferences1 of the International Labour Organization (ILO). At her 2010 opening statement at the ILC, Tanzanian activist Vicky Kanyoka proclaimed, “We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time.” The ILO last held preliminary discussions on the particularities of the household labour sector in 1948, followed by a second call for standard-setting action in 1965. Forty-five years later, a network of over 30 domestic workers from Africa, Asia, South America, North America and the Middle East joined global union leaders and gender and labour rights advocates to campaign for a Convention and supplemental Recommendations to protect the rights of domestic workers worldwide. The ILC 100th Session marked a global human rights victory when the ILO passed the first set of international standards for domestic work with a nearly unanimous vote of support from governments. The Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189) has since become a celebrated labour and human rights victory, with ratification by 15 countries.2