A Code of Conduct to recruit migrant domestic workers in Lebanon

29 July 2013 - In Lebanon, people working in private households are excluded from the protection of labor law.

[A domestic worker in Lebanon holds up a copy of her paper © Simba Russeau/IRIN] More than 200,000 migrant workers, mainly women, work in Lebanese households. Although they constitute a large proportion of the workforce, they do not enjoy the same rights as, for example, local shop assistants or factory workers.

A Code of Conduct, launched in June 2013, now provides guidance to recruiting agencies on promoting and protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers in the country.

Developed in consultation with the Middle East Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Code of Conduct was jointly put together by the Lebanese Ministry of Labor, the Syndicate of Owners of Recruitment Agencies in Lebanon (SORAL) and Caritas Lebanon's Migrant Center.

"This Code of Conduct is the result of two-years efforts

Recruitment agencies announce code of conduct

The Daily Star, by Samya Kullab, June 08, 2013 - BEIRUT: The Association of Owners of Recruitment Agencies in Lebanon has adopted a self-regulating code of conduct in a bid to protect the rights of migrant domestic workers, but the question of implementation, especially among recruitment agencies operating outside of the order, remains up in the air. “We are trying to put an end to the negative stereotype that haunts our industry,” explained Hisham Bourji, the association’s president, about his group’s decision to draft the code.

The announcement of the move was made Thursday during a conference organized by the International Labor Organization, with the cooperation of the Labor Ministry.

Bourji maintains that the association was already in the habit of following an implicit protocol for proper recruitment practices, but no one was paying

The System Ejects Charbel Nahas

In the negotiations period leading to the formation of the current government, my PhD supervisor confided that he had been "offered" by Nabih Berri the post of the Ministry of Labor, but that he had refused it. In the words of my supervisor, "there's nothing you can do in this ministry. I don't want it.". I got upset and thought I just missed my chance to become the adviser on migrant domestic work to the ministry of Labor.

Charbel Nahas proved that my dear professor was wrong. There's a lot you can do and that needs to be done in the Ministry of Labor. But if your try hard, you are bound to collide with political feudal "higher" interests.

I believe that reform of domestic worker was one of those areas where Charbel Nahas, in order to secure the rights and dignity of local and foreign domestic worker, had threatened the economic interest of many who profit on the kafala sponsorship system. But it was the "controversial" decree governing the transportation allowance that was the last straw.

For the Lebanese corrupt governance system, Charbel Nahas is a virus that has to be ejected out.

Now that Charbel Nahas has submitted his resignation (to Aoun, head of reform block; it seems that it has not been submitted to the council of ministers and therefor not in effect yet), I can only hope that his possible successor pursues the reform of domestic work in Lebanon as envisioned by Nahas.

Wissam al-Saliby, Ethiopian Suicides

Civil society split over Nahhas’ view on migrant domestic labor

27 January 2012, the Daily Star
BEIRUT: Civil society groups were divided Thursday in reaction to Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ voiced opposition to the draft law covering the rights of migrant domestic workers.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion on the empowerment of migrant domestic workers at La Sagesse university Monday, Nahhas told attendees that he rejected a separate labor law for migrant domestic workers. He reiterated his