Speech for Bhutan Human Rights

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Child domestic workers

As we move forward into the twenty-first century, we have begun to fulfil many of common
goals that we have set for ourselves in the last century. One of them is the universal protection of
the children. However, despite our best efforts, statistics show that children worldwide are not
protected at all. UNICEF estimates that approximately 250 million children under 14 are
working, with domestic work making up the majority. These children are often subjected to
exploitation and abuse; at times both physical and sexual. They work long hours with minimal
pay.

The root causes of child domestic labour are multiple and multi-faceted. Poverty, social
exclusion, lack of education, gender and ethnic discrimination, domestic violence, displacement,
rural-urban migration and loss of parents due to conflicts and diseases, are just some of the
multiple “push factors” for child domestic workers worldwide.

While there are efforts being made to curb child labour worldwide and legislations have been
passed, these efforts often overlook the plight of child domestic workers. Although, in our view
it is not totally viable to put an instant stop to such employment of children as domestic workers
in some case as their families rely on the little income they bring home, awareness must be raised
regarding their plight and legislative framework must be put in place to ensure their proper
mental, physical, social and intellectual development. Legislations which takes care of their
welfare and protects their rights must be passed by all nations of the world.

This is the main reason why we have pushed for this motion in this committee and seeing the
merits of this resolution, I hope all member nations will support it.