DOMESTIC CARE WORK AND SLAVERY: A HUMAN-RIGHTS BASED APPROACH

Care work is at the heart of humanity and our societies. We need care to survive in infancy, when we suffer an accident or illness, whether the impact is short, chronic or long-term, to support families and households, and to ensure the best possible quality of life as we age, including at the close of life. (ILO, 2022). Care is necessary for the existence and reproduction of societies and the workforce and for the overall well-being of every individual (ILO, 2018). Economies depend on care work to survive and thrive. (ILO, 2018). Yet, domestic work is one of the least protected sectors, both by law and by practice for a variety of gendered social, economic and cultural factors. The thesis aims to provide a global picture of the care economy from the angle of care workers, in particular from a human rights-based approach to care workers. It has four chapters. Chapter I looks at the main features of domestic care work and the socio-economic factors that affect the labour demand and supply in this sector. Through a human-rights based approach, Chapter II investigates the care workers’ risks of human rights violations. Chapter III looks at the regulatory system covering domestic work at the international level and the legal provisions regulating domestic care workers’ rights and the labour conditions of them. Finally, Chapter IV focuses on the processes that can help care workers, as rights holder and change makers, contribute to a shift of paradigm in the care sector.