During the question and answer session, Yabrek** asked rhetorically: “If a worker is abused, verbally degraded and yelled at, or even harassed by the husband or brother of the madame, whom should she confide in?” Yabrek is one of the estimated 250,000 domestic workers living and working in Lebanon. She has the abbreviation C189 printed on her white shirt, a shirt she usually wears on the streets of Beirut on 1 May and 16 June. C189 is the abbreviation of the convention passed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 16 June 2011 to strengthen the rights of domestic workers around the world and protect them from violence and exploitation as they clean, wash and take care of children and the elderly. Despite constant human rights violations, the Lebanese government has neglected to ratify the convention, but resistance to the injustices is growing.
The Kafala System isn’t Going to Abolish Itself!
After decades of marginalization, many of Lebanon’s approximately 250,000 domestic workers are demanding an end to their exploitation and fighting back against racism. At the conference “Connecting Resistances – Emancipatory Activism in West Asia, North Africa and Germany”, two activists reported on the alliances they are building and how they managed to find their voices. By Anna-Theresa Bachmann.
English | November 1, 2018
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