Saguaro
11-16-2007, 11:28 AM
NEW YORK - Some foreign diplomats abuse and exploit their household help while serving in the U.S., and one woman said she was forced to work up to 19 hours a day for a pittance, advocacy groups charge.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition with a human rights commission Thursday, arguing that rules on diplomatic immunity should allow abused household workers some recourse in the courts.
The petition was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of six women who worked for diplomats and three organizations that help domestic workers.
Raziah Begum, a petitioner from Bangladesh, said she worked for a diplomat from the Bangladesh Mission to the United Nations and his wife and was forced to work 16 to 19 hours a day for $29 a month.
"They tried to take from me my dignity and humanity, and they got away with it because of diplomatic immunity," she said.
A spokesman for the Bangladesh Mission did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The other five workers are from Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Paraguay and Chile. Their employers were diplomats from Bolivia, Botswana, Qatar, Argentina and Chile, the group said.
"As long as the U.S. gives diplomats immunity for enslaving their domestic workers without taking any steps to protect them or provide redress, diplomats can continue to exploit their domestic help," said Claudia Flores, an attorney with ACLU Women's Rights Project.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations allows exceptions to diplomatic immunity for "any professional or commercial activity ... outside (the diplomat's) official functions," the petition said. But the State Department's interpretation of the rules make it is impossible to hold foreign diplomats working in the U.S. accountable for exploiting their employees, Flores said.
"There's no way to prosecute a diplomat and there's no way to take a diplomat to court," she said.
Nancy Beck, a spokeswoman for the State Department, had no immediate comment on the petition.
If the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agrees to hear the petition, U.S. officials will have to appear and justify the policy, Flores said.
The commission, part of the Organization of American States, can make recommendations to the U.S. government and appeal to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights if they are ignored.
Two other groups joined in the petition, Global Rights and the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic of the University of North Carolina School of Law.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071116/ap_on_re_us/diplomats_domestic_workers;_ylt=ArmGxX3aPPxLBy5nxY HNAVRvzwcF
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition with a human rights commission Thursday, arguing that rules on diplomatic immunity should allow abused household workers some recourse in the courts.
The petition was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of six women who worked for diplomats and three organizations that help domestic workers.
Raziah Begum, a petitioner from Bangladesh, said she worked for a diplomat from the Bangladesh Mission to the United Nations and his wife and was forced to work 16 to 19 hours a day for $29 a month.
"They tried to take from me my dignity and humanity, and they got away with it because of diplomatic immunity," she said.
A spokesman for the Bangladesh Mission did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The other five workers are from Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Paraguay and Chile. Their employers were diplomats from Bolivia, Botswana, Qatar, Argentina and Chile, the group said.
"As long as the U.S. gives diplomats immunity for enslaving their domestic workers without taking any steps to protect them or provide redress, diplomats can continue to exploit their domestic help," said Claudia Flores, an attorney with ACLU Women's Rights Project.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations allows exceptions to diplomatic immunity for "any professional or commercial activity ... outside (the diplomat's) official functions," the petition said. But the State Department's interpretation of the rules make it is impossible to hold foreign diplomats working in the U.S. accountable for exploiting their employees, Flores said.
"There's no way to prosecute a diplomat and there's no way to take a diplomat to court," she said.
Nancy Beck, a spokeswoman for the State Department, had no immediate comment on the petition.
If the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agrees to hear the petition, U.S. officials will have to appear and justify the policy, Flores said.
The commission, part of the Organization of American States, can make recommendations to the U.S. government and appeal to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights if they are ignored.
Two other groups joined in the petition, Global Rights and the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic of the University of North Carolina School of Law.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071116/ap_on_re_us/diplomats_domestic_workers;_ylt=ArmGxX3aPPxLBy5nxY HNAVRvzwcF