OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings hosts Alliance conference on domestic servitude

VIENNA, 17 June 2010 - The tenth Alliance against Trafficking in Persons conference focused on trafficking for domestic servitude opened today in Vienna.

The two-day conference is the first high-level event on one of the most invisible forms of trafficking for labour exploitation in the OSCE area. The event brings together over 250 participants, including senior government officials, and national co-ordinators and rapporteurs from 50 countries, as well as more than 75 representatives from international and non-governmental organizations, law enforcement agencies and trade unions.

They will discuss domestic servitude as one of the most invisible forms of exploitation.

Keynote addresses were delivered by Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca representing the U.S. Department of State's Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

"Domestic servitude is modern-day slavery, and could be taking place in a household next to our own," said Giammarinaro in her opening address. "When a person is obliged to be permanently at the disposal of the employer in a household, and when this person works all day and gets no salary, receives little food, is allowed to sleep for just a few hours, is psychologically abused and has no days off, this is not domestic work, this is slavery."

"Better protection of the rights of all domestic workers, raising the awareness of the general public, training for professionals, and assistance to victims, especially child victims, are essential in the struggle against domestic servitude."

Domestic servitude involves workers, especially migrant women and girls, who are trafficked to work in exploitative, inhuman and degrading conditions in private households, hidden away behind closed doors.

Conference speakers will present cases of people subjugated by subtle means of psychological coercion and isolation used to achieve total control over the person. Challenges to be discussed including those encountered in investigating and prosecuting cases of trafficking for domestic servitude, and the lack of an agreed-upon definition and legal framework. The issue of diplomatic privilege that at times unintentionally facilitates trafficking by allowing migrant domestic workers to come legally to the country while not protecting them adequately will also be addressed.

A documentary film, Vous êtes servis, by Belgian film-maker Jorge León, will be screened for the first time in Vienna. A French documentary photo exhibit portraying domestic servitude will also be held in the Hofburg Congress Centre.

The conference is organized by the OSCE Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings under the auspices of the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons, a 40-member advocacy platform of major international and non-governmental organizations.