Pressure Grows to Protect Domestic Workers; Syria; NSA Spying‏

THE WEEK IN RIGHTS October 31, 2013 Follow us on: Pressure Grows to Protect Domestic Workers  © 2012 REUTERS/ Enrique Castro-Mendivil  The founding of a global federation of domestic workers is a sign of the growing strength of the movement, and a key moment to assess progress for workers long excluded from basic labor protections. There are an estimated 53 million domestic workers worldwide – the majority of them women and girls, and many of them migrants. In the past two years, 25 countries have improved legal protections for domestic workers, with many of the strongest reforms in Latin America. Some of the biggest challenges loom in the European Union, which has a growing elderly population depending on the services domestic workers provide, and the Middle East and Asia, where progress has been weak and some of the worst abuses occur.  Read more >> share on:   Special feature >> Syria: What Chance to Stop the Slaughter? Kenneth Roth writes in The New York Review of Books that the chemical weapons deal for Syria represents the best opportunity since the war there began to forge a unified international front to stop the slaughter. But that will happen only with a much more focused and consistent international effort to press Russia to live up to its responsibility to protect the people of Syria.  Read more >> share on:   Dispatches: Taming the NSA – Reform Bills Fall Short  The legislative wheels are spinning furiously on Capitol Hill, as US lawmakers put bills in play in response to the global fury over rampant surveillance by the National Security Agency. But none of these proposals go far enough.  Read more >> share on:   Bangladesh: No Justice in Mass Trials for Mutineers  Trying hundreds of people en masse in one giant courtroom, where the accused have little or no access to lawyers is an affront to international legal standards.  Read more >> share on:   In Russia, Abuses Tarnish 100-Day Countdown to Winter Olympics  With just 100 days before the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the International Olympic Committee has a key opportunity to speak out about abuses linked to Russia’s preparations for the games.  Read more >> share on:   In Kuwait, 10 Years for Twitter Comments Ten years in prison for peaceful criticism shows just how little Kuwait respects freedom of expression. Locking up critics isn’t going to make Kuwait’s political crisis go away.  Read more >> share on:   MAP Which countries have ratified the domestic workers’ convention? Click here, scroll down >> DISPATCHES Dispatches: A Long Wait for Justice in the Philippines. Read now, click here >> TWEET of the WEEK #Saudi women will still keep driving until it becomes normal. http://reut.rs/1an664X Follow Rothna Begum >>