27 December 2013 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus the Philippine-sponsored resolution on Violence against women migrant workers last December 18.

Taking into account the large number of Filipinos living and working abroad, especially women and girls applying for employment, the Philippines together with Indonesia tabled the biennial resolution on Violence against women migrant workers, which underscores the importance of the promotion and protection of the rights of women migrant workers and stresses the need for cooperation and shared responsibility of all stakeholders, in particular countries of origin, transit and destination, to promote an environment that prevents and addresses violence against women migrant workers.

The resolution welcomes the entry into force on September 5, 2013 of International Labour Organization Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers and invites States to consider ratifying it. It also calls upon governments to consider permitting, in accordance with national legislation, women migrant workers who are victims of violence to apply for residency permits independently of abusive employers or spouses, and to eliminate abusive sponsorship systems.

The resolution urges States that have not yet done so to adopt and implement legislation and policies that protect all women migrant domestic workers, including those in domestic service, and to grant women migrant workers in domestic service access to gender-sensitive, transparent mechanisms for bringing complaints against employers, including terminating their contract in case of labour and economic exploitation, discrimination, sexual harassment, violence and sexual abuse in the workplace.

The biennial resolution had 53 co-sponsors from across all regions. END