News/Reports
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Qatar World Cup: 1,200 Migrant Workers Dead
A recent report from the International Trade Union Confederation indicates that 1,200 migrant workers have died while working on World Cup projects in Qatar. Migrant workers from India and Nepal have been traveling to the country for construction jobs in preparation for the 2022 games in Qatar since 2010. Lusail City workers have reported squalid working conditions, withheld pay, the confiscation of passports and unhealthy demands, including working in 122 degree heat with no rest nor food.
The Guardian has dubbed this migrant worker exploitation in Qatar "modern day slavery" while the ILO has called on Qatar to implement necessary reforms. The ITUC also predicts that 4,000 migrant workers will die by the time that the games begin. Most shocking, however, is the Qatari World Cup Committee's denial of the situation, claiming that the ITUC's statistics are both "incorrect and misleading." Efforts are reportedly being made to investigate the situation and institute reforms to end this offense to human rights.
Write-up By: Mersadies Burch, GFI Intern
(Photo via Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Tunisia to Hold Elections in 2014, Despite Delays
March 26, 2014
“Tunisia's presidential and parliamentary elections will go ahead as planned later this year despite delays in approving a new election law, authorities said on Wednesday.
No date has yet been set for the elections, the second ballot since the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and the first since the adoption of a new constitution praised internationally as a model for transition to democracy.
‘The second elections after the 2011 vote will be more difficult because the standards will be tougher,’ said Chafik Sarsar, head of the Independent Election Commission (ISIE).
‘Elections should be held on time in 2014, despite all the difficulties,’ he said.
Sarsar acknowledged hurdles to overcome, including the fact ISIE does not yet have a headquarters and delays to the new electoral law meant to provide a framework for running the ballot.
Three years after its revolt, Tunisia is in its final steps to full democracy, with a new constitution adopted and more political stability than in Libya and Egypt, which also ousted long-standing leaders in 2011…”
Click on the link above to read the full article or visit: http://www.voanews.com/content/tunisia-to-hold-elections-in-two-thousand-fourteen-despite-delays/1879609.html
FILE - Tunisia's Speaker of the Assembly Mustapha Ben Jaafar casts his vote over the composition of an election commission that will oversee a vote later this year, Tunis, Jan. 8, 2014.
Informal Miners Block Roads in Peru on Fifth Day of Protests
Around 3,000 informal miners took to the streets of Lima, Peru last Thursday to pressure the government to extend its deadline for registering mining activities, due to expire next month. On Monday, protestors blocked roads around the country, in total leaving at least 1 dead and 12 injured. The government, which has dispatched 5,000 police and 1,000 army troops in response, refuses to extend its April 19 formalization deadline and intends to press charges against 40 informal mining group leaders. Around 70,000 of the country's estimated 100,000 informal workers have signed a declaration committing to formalization.
Illegal and informal miners produced around 12% of Peru’s gold output in 2012, generating about $3 billion in annual revenue. However, debate over the issue is ripe, as unregulated gold mining is destroying the rainforest and causing mercury contamination of water and fishing sources. Miners, meanwhile, protest the legislation’s deadline, arguing that it could destroy the livelihood of thousands of small-scale miners and their families, and support a 2-year extension as well as a more integrated legal framework to sustain formalization.
Write-up By: Mersadies Burch, GFI Intern
(Photo via AP-Rodrigo Abd)
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GFI Founder and President, Karen Tramontano, writes an incredible article on Informality as a part of the Council on Foreign Relations' Development Channel series on global justice and development.
Formalizing Economies to Fight Poverty
"Sixty percent of the labor force in most developing countries works in the informal economy. Even though the informal economy is vibrant and provides essential services and goods to many communities, most governments disregard it. If governments instead sought to bring informal economies into the fold, they could enjoy substantial economic benefits. Even more important, granting economic and legal rights to these overlooked workers and producers could lift thousands out of poverty—simply because social security is one of the most effective poverty-fighting tools that a government can utilize."
"The Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), a non-profit organization I founded, works to expand livelihood opportunities for the poor through market-based interventions. In 2008, we launched a project in Guatemala to prove that formalizing workers and enterprises is feasible and can directly reduce poverty. Because the Guatemalan government had almost no data on the informal sector prior to the project, GFI first surveyed informal workers and small enterprises to understand the dimensions and economic value of the sector. The results shed light on both the strengths and challenges of the informal economy. Community discussions, interviews, and surveys that GFI conducted revealed that workers were eager to escape the shadows of the informal economy, voice their opinions, and be taken into account by the government and its leaders. We found that many workers and producers were completely excluded from their country’s economic and legal framework: they lacked access to legal protections, fair wages, safe working conditions, and social safety nets and services. As a result, these men and women often worked harder and longer hours than their formalized counterparts and were among the most exploited and the least protected from harsh labor conditions.".....
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