National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
Press Release

Filipinos welcome U.N.’s critique of Canada’s human rights record, cite human rights violations of live-in caregivers

For immediate release: February 6, 2009

A national advocacy group of Filipinos in Canada welcomed the recent recommendations of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) urging Canada to ratify a treaty to protect the rights of migrant workers. The UPR took place in Geneva, Switzerland on Feb. 3, 2009.

Members of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) a national advocacy group of Filipinos in Canada say the Canadian government should listen to the U.N. body’s recommendations and the voices of Filipino migrant workers in Canada and other NGO’s who have been urging the government to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW) and investigate abuses under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

Chapter members of the NAPWC participated in consultations in Vancouver and Toronto last month organized along with other NGOs and Indigenous peoples organizations with officials of Canadian Heritage leading up to the UPR. The NAPWC also submitted a nine-page brief to the Canadian government detailing the numerous human rights violations and lack of promotion and protection of human rights of Filipino live-in caregivers in Canada.

The brief reads, “we remain deeply concerned that there is no transparent and effective national mechanism in Canada that serves to raise human rights issues from the perspective of marginalized communities like our own. More significantly, there is no national mechanism to hold Canada We cite as examples previous treaty body recommendations that called on Canada to (1) ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW) and (2) investigate abuses under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).”

The group slammed Canada’s report to the UPR for stating, “temporary foreign workers enjoy the same labour-related rights, human rights and social protections that Canadians possess. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to all individuals on Canadian soil and fosters an environment of social inclusion.”

They say over 20 years of documented community-based research into the abuses of the LCP and the negative short-term and long-term impacts on the women and their families exposes Canada’s UPR report as “lies.” They say these findings have also been supported by numerous academic and media reports.

After the national consultations, a joint brief representing the NGOs and Indigenous peoples organizations was presented by members of groups such as Centre for Equality Rights and Accommodation, Social Rights Advocacy Centre, Native Women’s Association of Canada and Amnesty International to member states of the UPR in Geneva. Among the brief’s recommendations are:

“The live-in caregiver program should be discontinued and the immigration applications of caregivers should instead be processed through the regular immigration process. At a minimum the live-in requirement of the program should be abolished. More widely, the Canadian government should conduct a wide review of the various ways by which foreign nationals are employed in Canada, including individuals who have no immigration status in the country, with an eye to enacting reforms needed to ensure full protection of their human rights, including all labour rights.”

Since the early 1980’s nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada under the LCP and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement.

The group has likened the program to “modern-day slavery” and calls it “racist” and “anti-woman.” They say the program does not solve the childcare crisis in Canada and promotes further privatization of the Canadian health care system. They have been advocating for its elimination for over 20 years.

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Copies of the NAPWC brief to Canada’s UPR are available by request.

To arrange an interview of for more information, please contact:

Vancouver
Kalayaan Centre
451 Powell Street Vancouver ,
BC V6A 1G7
Website: www.kalayaancentre.net
E-mail: pwc@kalayaancentre.net

Phone: Leah Diana, Executive Director, Philippine Women Centre of BC at ph: (604) 215-1103

Toronto
Magkaisa Centre
1093 Davenport Road
Toronto , ON M6G 2C3
Website: www.magkaisacentre.org
E-mail: pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
Phone: Joy Sioson, Chairperson Philippine Women Centre of Ontario at ph: (415) 519-2553

Montreal
Kapit Bisig Centre
4900 Rue Fulton
Montreal, Quebec H3W 1V4

E-mail: pwcofquebec@gmail.com
Phone: Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director, NAPWC at ph: (514) 678-3901