Bangladesh: Migrant CSOs call for the Ratification of ILO C189 on Domestic Work
— April 19, 2018On 14 March 2018, Migrant forum in Asia in collaboration with the Bangladesh Civil Society for Migration, organized a national consultation on the Ratification of ILO C189 on domestic work. The consultation was the culmination of a series of meetings and programs to launch a national campaign for the ratification of the ILO C189 on domestic work.
MFA worked with partners in Bangladesh to develop a two year campaign plan for the ratification of ILO C189. A first informal meeting with partners in Bangladesh was held in February 2018 to discuss the possibility of mobilizing for the two year campaign for ratification. Present in the meeting were migrant organizations and a local domestic workers organization . During the meeting, the partners agreed to cooperate and work on the two year campaign. The meeting as well identified some of the key stakeholders and a number of strategies to put forward a solid national campaign for ratification.
The first meeting in February with MFA members and partners was followed by bilateral consultations with various organizations and allies who could take the lead in the campaign prior to the national consultation. The discussions focused on in taking stock of information – current and pressing domestic workers issue in the country, concrete strategies, tactics and action plans, mapping stakeholders, and feasible time frame for the campaign.
The consultation served as a platform to concretize the action plan for the campaign. More than twenty participants attended the consultation comprised of civil society organizations, trade unions, and representatives of the academe. The participants discussed substantively the relevance of the convention in the context of Bangladesh as well as possible action plan on how to move forward the C189 ratification.
During the consultation, the participants agreed that the Bangladesh Civil Society for Migration (BCSM) coordinate the campaign. The current chair and Secretariat of the BCSM is the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU). The consultation came out with an action plan towards the ratification of C189 that the organizations present will work together on. As next step, BCSM was tasked to coordinate a meeting as a national coalition in April 2018 to work out essential details following the earlier consultation.
Please find below photos from the program