CEDAW/C/2009/WP.1/R
(c)
Regulations and monitoring systems, as follows:
(i) States parties should adopt regulations and design monitoring systems to
ensure that recruiting agents and employment agencies respect the rights of all
women migrant workers. States parties should include in their legislation a
comprehensive definition of irregular recruitment along with a provision on
legal sanctions for breaches of the law by recruitment agencies (article 2 (e));
(ii) States parties should also implement accreditation programmes to ensure
good practices among recruitment agencies (article 2 (e));
(d) Health services: States parties should ensure the provision of
standardized and authentic health certificates if required by countries of destination
and require prospective employers to purchase medical insurance for women
migrant workers. All required pre-departure HIV/AIDS testing or pre-departure
health examinations must be respectful of the human rights of women migrants.
Special attention should be paid to voluntariness, the provision of free or affordable
services and to the problems of stigmatization (articles 2 (f) and 12);
(e) Travel documents: States parties should ensure that women have equal
and independent access to travel documents (article 2 (d));
(f) Legal and administrative assistance: States parties should ensure the
availability of legal assistance in connection with migration for work. For example,
legal reviews should be available to ensure that work contracts are valid and protect
women’s rights on a basis of equality with men (articles 3 and 11);
(g) Safeguarding remittances of income: States parties should establish
measures to safeguard the remittances of women migrant workers and provide
information and assistance to women to access formal financial institutions to send
money home and to encourage them to participate in savings schemes (articles 3 and
11);
(h) Facilitating the right to return: States parties should ensure that women
who wish to return to their countries of origin are able to do so free of coercion and
abuse (article 3);
(i) Services to women upon return: States parties should design or oversee
comprehensive socio-economic, psychological and legal services aimed at
facilitating the reintegration of women who have returned. They should monitor
service providers to ensure that they do not take advantage of the vulnerable
position of women returning from work abroad, and should have complaint
mechanisms to protect the women against reprisals by recruiters, employers or
former spouses (articles 2 (c) and 3);
(j) Diplomatic and consular protection: States parties must properly train
and supervise their diplomatic and consular staff to ensure that they fulfil their role
in protecting the rights of women migrant workers abroad. Such protection should
include quality support services available to women migrants, including timely
provision of interpreters, medical care, counselling, legal aid and shelter when
needed. Where States parties have specific obligations under customary
international law or treaties such as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,
those obligations must be carried out in full in relation to women migrant workers
(article 3);
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