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The Canadian Human Rights Foundation works with Asian NGOs and governments to lead training and education programs for labor attachés. The training encourages diplomats to be more pro-active in protecting the rights of their citizens living and working abroad, particularly migrant laborers. The training sessions are held in cooperation with local organizations and involve small groups of people representing both governments and NGOs.

The Canadian Human Rights Foundation works with Asian NGOs and governments to lead training and education programs for labor attachés. The training encourages diplomats to be more pro-active in protecting the rights of their citizens living and working abroad, particularly migrant laborers.

Many countries depend on their workers to travel abroad as migrant laborers for a significant source of their country’s revenue. Yet in many cases, migrant laborers are mistreated, and many migrant women end up being trafficked into the sex industry or working as “domestics,” where they are poorly treated. (For example, the sex industry is the second most common employer for Filipino migrant women.) Many governments feel that abuses occurring abroad are simply “not their problem.”

The CHRF and its partners train attachés to be more sensitive to the human rights abuses many migrant workers face. In planning and convening the training sessions, the CHRF uses its international clout and experience to support local NGOs. Together, they determine the exact content of their training sessions, develop a program, identify people to invite to the session, and host the program. Approximately one to two trainings per year are held throughout Asia.

Each training program lasts five to six days, and involves a small group of only 30-40 people, including representatives of NGOs and governments. This situation is less threatening for those involved, and allows for traditional barriers between NGOs and governments to be broken down. The impact of the sessions endures even after the meetings are over, because the parties involved now have a common experience and are better able to work together and keep in touch.

Completed in Summer 2000.

A resource related to this tactic is the Diplomats' Handbook for Democracy Development Suport, a project of the Community of Democracies, published in Summer 2008. 

Photo credit: PolandMFA