Impact and people

2011

  1. The story of Siti Tarwiyah: Beaten to death in Saudi Arabia; blood money is all that remains of a mother’s love

    15 September 2011

    “I’m still so traumatized. I can not forget my late wife. Her body was covered in wounds as a result of regular caning,” recalled Hamid, the husband of Siti Tarwiyah who died in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, three years ago. Her body was bruised everywhere because members of the employers family used to smash her up against walls. She was only 32 years old when she died.

  2. The story of Ceriyati: Escaping abuse in Malaysia

    15 September 2011

    Ceriyati Binti Dapin, a 37-year-old mother of a handicapped son, had no other choice but to become a migrant domestic worker in order to supplement the income of her husband Ridwan, who worked as an ojek driver in the Central Java town of Brebes. Despite the long recruitment process and delays in getting employment in Malaysia, she had a strong desire to help her husband cover her son’s regular medical costs.

  3. The story of Cassina: Trapped in war-torn Iraq

    15 September 2011

    Like most of her peers in Subang, West Java, Cassina had a strong desire to lift her family out of poverty as it had a debilitating effect on them since her marriage in 1996. Her husband’s daily income as an ojek driver was inadequate to cover their daily needs and pay for their ten year-old son’s monthly school tuition fees. Having heard the success stories about her fellow villagers working in Malaysia and Middle East, she decided she wanted to work in Abu Dhabi.

  4. Questions and Answers on global trends and challenges on occupational safety and health

    12 September 2011

    The XIX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work to be held in Istanbul on 11-15 September provides a major forum to discuss the latest safety and health challenges in the world of work. ILO Online spoke with Seiji Machida, Director of the ILO’s Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment (SafeWork), about the Congress and the challenges ahead.

  5. Public-private partnerships in Asia Pacific – the best of two systems

    26 August 2011

    Public-private partnerships are gaining increasing traction in international development cooperation and are being used more and more by the International Labour Organization (ILO). By Wolfgang Schiefer, Chief, Regional Partnerships, Resource Mobilization and UN Reform, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

  6. Questions and answers on the hidden reality of children in domestic work

    08 August 2011

    The recently approved ILO Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 on decent work for domestic workers aim to protect and improve working and living conditions of millions of workers worldwide, who have few – if any – labour rights. Many are children who spend long hours working as domestic helpers, performing tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, minding other children and gardening instead of being at school. ILO News spoke to ILO experts Martin Oelz (TRAVAIL) and José M. Ramírez (IPEC) on the current situation of child domestic workers and how the new Convention and Recommendation can help impact their lives.

  7. Gender-based violence comes at high social and economic cost

    01 August 2011

    Gender-based violence negatively impacts the world of work. It is described by many as the most prevalent human rights violation in the world, with at least one in three women globally estimated to have been coerced into sex, physically beaten, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.

  8. Female Future: Turning the tide

    01 August 2011

    Legislation establishing quotas that ensure gender diversity in senior management positions and on boards understandably has many takers, even as some still struggle with the real face of “positive discrimination”.

  9. Age discrimination: Older than 50, so what?

    01 August 2011

    Governments increasingly seek to increase the participation of older workers in the labour market, for example by revising retirement age provisions, says the new ILO report on discrimination at work.

  10. The economic crisis and discrimination against migrant workers

    01 August 2011

    Migrant workers are subject to increased discrimination during economic downturns. An effective policy response depends on social dialogue in which competing interests are acknowledged. Gary Humphreys reports.