Organizations & Cultures: Woman Rights and The International Organization for Migration (IOM)

The IOM is an Intergovernmental organization that is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.

It works to:
1.Help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration.
2.Promote international cooperation on migration issues.
3.Assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need(refugees, displaced persons, etc).

It Gives recognition to the right of freedom of movement of persons.

The IOM covers four areas of migration:
1.migration and development
2.facilitating migration
3.regulating migration
4.addressing forced migration

The IOM promotes:
1.International migration law
2.Policy debate and guidance
3.Protection of migrants’ rights
4.Migration health and the gender dimension of migration

IOM efforts towards Woman migrant Workers:

- In November 2002, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, in collaboration with IOM, organized the Hemispheric Conference on International Migration: Human Rights and Trafficking in Persons in the Americas. The Conference aimed at fostering an integral vision of migration. The subject of women migrant workers was discussed in different panels and he Women and Development Unit of the Commission presented a document

entitled “Trata de Mujeres: Conexiones y Desconexiones entre Género,

Migración y Derechos Humanos”. (www.iom.int, 2003)

- A key element in the gender policy of IOM is recognition of the feminization

of international migration, that is, the trend towards women increasingly being

independent actors in the migration process, especially as labour migrants. In this context, women face greater risks of gender-based violence, including trafficking and other rights abuses. IOM has thus placed special emphasis on prevention of such abuses through multimedia public information campaigns in countries of origin aimed at potential women migrants. These campaigns seek to raise consciousness of the realities of migration as well as ways potential women migrants can recognize and address the challenges they may face. IOM also works with Governments and NGO partners to provide practical pre-departure training for migrant women. The most recent example of the latter began in the Philippines in June 2003: the training programme, entitled “The Power to Choose — a Guide for Women Migrant Workers”, used both videos and printed materials, which remain in the possession of the migrants after the course is completed. (www.iom.int, 2003)

We can see that IOM focuses on General sectors almost all the times, but as it have seen issues regarding to women rights, it searches ways to help this affected sectors and help them as previously seen in the two examples.

Unifem is another organization that helps women and created a briefing paper that contains all the human rights protections applicable to women migrant workers - Here is the link

In the briefing paper there are a lot of points like:

- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) guarantees women equal rights in employment.

- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes
the right to fair wages.

The document goes on an on making explicit all rights that help women. We must see the reality of the world, we can say feminism has overcome all this issues but it is a big lie as women suffer infinitum punishes, discrimination and other scenarios that put them in disadvantage with men.