By Mariatou Ngum
The Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment (MoTIE), in collaboration with the Center for Research and Action on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CRADESC), and the Foundation For Just Society (FJS), on Thursday, validated the report on the violation of social, economic, and cultural rights of domestic workers case study, at a hotel in Bijilo.
CRADESC and FJS are implementing the regional project on “documenting violations of domestic workers’ rights in West Africa”. The second phase of which is the “Strategic support for the realization of the economic, social and cultural rights of domestic workers (2022-2024).”
The Gambia, a beneficiary of the project, hosted a national forum that brought together key stakeholders. Data collection was carried out by domestic workers, state actors, CSOs, and organizations working for the rights of women, girls, and trade unions in 2022.
Delivering her statement at the two-day validation workshop, Dr. Fatima Diallo Gai, Director of CRADESC thanked the Trade Ministry for the support in making the event a success as well as the participants for attending the workshop.
The aim of the project, she said, is to document the violation of the economic, domestic, and cultural rights of domestic workers in West Africa as well as to support CSOs and unions who are working to improve the lives of domestic workers in the region and also to collaborate in a very transparent and vibrant manner with the Ministries of Trade, Justice, Labour and Gender of different countries to be able to bring on the table meaningful engagement between the different stakeholders she said.
“We have already done the study in nine countries and we have proceeded to the validation of the study in eight countries including The Gambia as well as engaging the media to help in sharing and disseminating violations of domestic workers’ rights finding in The Gambia,” she said.
For his part, Basiru Secka, the Principal Labour Economist at MoTIE, on behalf of MoTIE, welcomed the participants to the validation workshop while informing them that they have a long-standing relationship with CRADESC.
According to him, CRADESC feels that domestic workers are marginalized and most of the time, they cannot express their views to fight for their own rights, this necessitates this project.
Mr. Momodou Lamin Suso, Secretary General of The Gambia Horticultural Workers Union, called on the government to support them in this crusade, noting that employment can only go with employment letters ‘‘but most of the people believed on the verbal agreement which is very unsafe.’’
He assured the gathering that the trade unions would be vigilant in the protection of the welfare of workers.
