Justice Beyond Borders: Portable Justice for Global Workers
Esta presentción ha sido seleccionada como finalista del desafío
Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes Leading the Way .
Portable justice—the right and ability of transnational migrant workers to access justice in the destination countries after they return to their home countries.
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Ubicación
Project Street Address
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tu idea
Sector Focus
Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2005
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Posicionamiento de tu iniciativa en el diagrama del mosaico
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Invisibility of problem
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Expand legal access and frameworks
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
The title “Invisibility of the Problem” describes the Barrier we address, but the Barrier description under the Mosaic of Solutions does not match our work. Rather Global Workers is bringing to light an important, yet sorely lacking, tool to anti-trafficking efforts— portable justice for trafficking victims who return to their country of origin. Although “Inadequate Government Response” is certainly part of it, the problem is broader and raising the visibility of the issue has been one of our major efforts. So not sure where that puts us on the mosaic but it is fine if we stay as is!
Nombre de tu proyecto
Justice Beyond Borders: Portable Justice for Global Workers
Describe Your Idea
Portable justice—the right and ability of transnational migrant workers to access justice in the destination countries after they return to their home countries.
Innovación
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Portable justice—the right and ability of transnational migrant workers to access justice in the destination countries after they return to their home countries.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
Not all trafficking victims remain in the country where they were trafficked. Unaware of their legal rights or of services available to them, many return home before receiving the justice they deserve. This rewards and encourages the traffickers who are unaccountable for their abuses. Challenging traffickers--whether civilly or criminally—from their home countries is nearly impossible due to the lack of knowledge of the destination country laws or services. The legal and practical obstacles facing victims of trafficking to assert their rights, or even learn about their rights, from their home countries are so great, that most abandon any hope for justice. Global Workers addresses this gap by making justice portable by empowering organizations to offer trafficking victims and other global migrants the ability to seek justice in the destination country although they are no longer physically present. Partnering with local organizations, in the solution ensures that the portable justice mechanism is efficient, effective, and sustainable—and that is the distinguishing and pioneering innovation.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
Portable justice is implemented through the Global Workers Defender Network, comprised of advocates in the migrant-home countries, who educate migrants and facilitate legal cases in partnership with advocates in the destination countries. After training new Defenders on the destination country’s trafficking and employment laws, they commit to identify and facilitate legal cases for returned migrants and conduct educational campaigns. Global Workers ensures that each case facilitated for a returned migrant—by the destination country organizations with the Defender Network—meets all parties’ expectations for justice.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
Wherever workers are crossing borders, the need for portable justice exists. The expansion possibilities are indeed breathtaking. But due to the ambitious concept and the significant investment in time, advocacy, and education to make the pilot work with the realities on the ground, we started off in a limited geographic area: the United States (destination country), and selected regions of Mexico and Guatemala (sending countries). The intention is to steadily expand not only in the selected countries but to additional transnational migratory streams. Although new regions will necessarily require new approaches, fundamentally the beauty of the model is its simplicity and efficiency. The goal is to leverage the power of organizations that already exist in these migrant communities and connect them to each other for concrete services for abused workers. Global Workers serves as the overall support and coordinator. Without the need for building a large infrastructure, the model--just like the migrant beneficiaries it aims to serve--is quite mobile and can quickly expand to new areas.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
Since the success of the entire project rests upon successful partnerships, much time is invested in developing and maintaining these relationships. In the migrant sending countries, the goal is to identify trusted and reputable community organizations, with legal capacity. If there is no direct personal experience with that community, we identify well-known umbrella organizations that can orient us to which organizations may be interested in collaborating with the project. Site visits to the organizations then leads us to additional possibilities. Eventually we invite a few of the organizations to enter the network. In the destination countries relationships must also be built to garner the trust for the organizations to engage the network for their transnational cases. Contact is made through professional associations, conferences, and direct outreach. Global Workers is also developing projects with governments to address portable justice issues. Up to this point, this has consisted of developing personal relationships with officials to create local pilot initiatives, but soon more formal projects will be launched.
Impacto
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
With portable justice, trafficking victims and migrant workers will no longer forgo justice for abuses suffered just because they want to return home.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
Although a core group of destination country organizations embrace transnational work, many function unilaterally and are hesitant to engage in cross-border collaboration. With demonstrated results of the effectiveness of partnering with local organizations, we should be able to inspire confidence and more cases. Another challenge is finding enough destination country organizations to accept cases identified by the Defender Network. The education campaigns will generate an enormous case-load and undoubtedly it will be difficult to find the legal support to satisfy that demand.
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
We have assisted several thousand migrant workers and their advocates in a variety of ways. Case facilitations are really the core of our work. When advocates are challenged with representing abused migrant workers because the client has returned to the country of origin, instead of dropping the case (most common), or spending significant resources to unilaterally work the case, they contact us and we formally connect them to a Defender organization in the area of need. We also offer support services, such as legal assistance to USA advocates regarding portable justice. Due to the large need, we are also running a less-formal referral program outside of our current operations. Additionally, we have sending-country government programs designed to push them to assist their abused migrants and trafficking victims pre-departure, while in the destination country, and once they have returned. Through educational programs to migrants, which are in the planning phase, more migrants will be educated about their rights before they migrant, thereby decreasing the likelihood of exploitation.
Directly
We have programs in three countries and have informally facilitated cases in another five. A brief snapshot includes: 50 trafficking victims obtaining protective visas and/or recovering significant civil claims against their traffickers; 500 workers recovering stolen wages; three injured workers obtaining medical assistance and compensation. This occurred even before we formalized the network.
To create the Global Workers Defenders Network, we identified and trained organizations in USA employment/trafficking laws (USA is the initial destination country). 23 advocates from 13 human rights organizations attended the inaugural training. We now support and supervise them as they assist in concrete cases. The manual we drafted on USA labor rights will be a continual resource as they design and launch migrant education programs. USA advocates benefit from our trainings and legal advice on transnational litigation and the manual we are currently drafting on the topic. Additional manuals, such as practical tips to litigating with overseas clients, are projected projects. We also speak and advocate internationally on portable justice.
Indirectly
Our ultimate beneficiaries are migrant workers. However, our work focuses on indirect support. The reason being is that we are looking for broad, sustainable impact. An example will illustrate the point. A worker who went to the USA with a temporary work visas found himself a victim of trafficking when the promised job did not materialize. Instead of high wages and a secure job, he was trafficked into a low-paying job, forced to sleep on the floor, threatened and had his passport withheld. Deceived and angry, he finally managed to escape and returned to his native Guatemala. If he had not found a Global Workers advocate in Guatemala, it is very unlikely he ever would have found justice. We quickly mobilized a legal team and the 14 remaining workers were liberated. Those workers remain in the USA protected under trafficking laws. The assistance was secured in the sending-country, not the destination country where the workers were being victimized and did not know where to turn.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
We also assist trafficking victims with country-of-origin needs such as one case of recovering a child held by traffickers; obtaining a birth certificate to support a trafficking visa application; and providing an expert affidavit regarding country conditions.
The goal is to decrease worker exploitation. Knowing that migrants, due to their mobility, are highly unlikely to challenge an employer, workplace standards eventually erode and the migrant workers are disempowered to do anything about it. Portable justice will lead to improved labor conditions for all workers.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Ensuring that laws and policies are a positive force for transnational migrants is an important aspect of our work. This ranges from pushing for legislative changes to enacting programs in partnership with governments to ensure that workers depart from their countries knowing their rights and where to seek assistance in the destination country and that services are available when they return. For example, we are currently commenting on regulatory changes to the US temporary guestworker programs to ensure that protections from the portable justice sending-country perspective are included. Additionally, due to our advocacy in a small pilot initiative, a US consulate is now providing know-your-rights fliers, which we drafted, to migrants bound for the US. We also have several programs with foreign governments in development.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
Migrant workers greatly benefit from a system that ensures portable justice. It is unacceptable for them to be denied justice for abuses suffered just because they want to go home. With 200 million migrants in the world, systemic, large-scale change is needed. We envision the change through already existing advocates and governments, which in turn provide the needed services to the migrants. Empowering local organizations to offer transnational legal services and rights education will result in many more migrant beneficiaries.
Esta presentación se trata de
Sostenibilidad
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Our principal support thus far has been foundations and individual donations (mostly through fundraisers in the USA). Another important and developing source is from the destination country organizations that need our services. Many of our USA partners are NGOs that assist migrant workers and have budgets to litigate cases. We are just initiating a policy to charge the US organizations a very modest per hour fee, 2/3 of which we will pass through to the Defender partners. When organizations cannot pay up front yet the workers ultimately prevail, we have collected attorneys fees from the defendants. These fees can be substantial but is quite sporadic and requires a large investment of potentially uncompensated work. Finally, we have undertaken consulting work to supplement the income.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization
In fiscal year 2007, we raised $81,000. Our budget for this year has increased to $182,000 (mostly due to salary for a third full time staff person we will be taking on in August). At this time we have a $40,000 budget short fall. We plan to make up for the income shortfall by increased foundation outreach, fees from cases that are expected to settle shortly, the new fee-based service model we are initiating, and consultancies. We are at a juncture in our development where we have to take a risk to grow to the next stage. Unfortunately, it is not always easy, especially for a start-up, to have the funds grow as quickly as your programs. Too much programmatic work with insufficient funds means the programs will likely fail. But if one waits for full funding to move forward, growth may never happen.
Number of staff: 3 full time, 10 volunteers
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Quantifying how many migrants return to their country of origin with legal problems unaddressed is an unknown statistic. In the US for example, 180,000 temporary guestworkers enter yearly. An additional 7 million work without authorization. Probably 80% of the temporary workers cycle out of the USA every year, and 10% of unauthorized workers leave (deported or voluntary). Additionally, the need for pre-departure programs is very high. As the name implies though, the work is global. The USA is just first destination country.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
As a transnational project, many foundations see it as beyond the confines of their national programs. Others want a track record before they will invest—a challenge when one lacks the funds to undertake the programs they expect to see. Lacking a narrower focus on gender or children has also been a barrier to funding. As for the fee-generating work, many NGOs are resource strapped themselves and may be challenged to work with us if we begin to charge for the services.
La historia
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
usinesses are global. Workers are global. Justice is not. As a migrant labor attorney, I witnessed this reality again and again. While representing two thousand farmworkers who had worked in the Florida tomato fields, I traveled multiple times to Guatemala to ensure that the workers who had left the country had the opportunity to stand up to their employer who had exploited their labor. Despite these efforts and the precedent-setting legal win, only ten percent of the workers directly benefited.
My experience was similar to others across the country. Dedicated and hard-working, these advocates’ unilateral efforts were ultimately insufficient to tackle the transnational phenomena. After having worked with human right advocates in Guatemala during my years there, I wondered why we weren’t teaming up with these incredible resources. Every time I traveled to Guatemala working on my labor cases, I made an effort to reach out and involve local organizations. Although this substantially improved the efficiency and impact of my work in the short-term, ultimately I did not have the time, resources, or the mandate to create structures to offer the long-term solutions and structures that would benefit other farmworker advocates around the country.
Subsequently, I designed and spearheaded a project on human trafficking in East Timor, where I was further convinced that without advocates working across borders, most migrants would never be able to confront their illegal treatment. I decided to launch the Global Workers Justice Alliance when I returned to the United States to address these challenges.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
Cathleen Caron is the Executive Director of the Global Workers Justice Alliance, an organization dedicated to ensuring portable justice for migrant workers. Prior to founding Global Workers, she headed an anti-trafficking project for the First Lady of East Timor. She has also consulted with Realizing Rights on labor migration issues. For several years, Cathleen litigated labor cases with the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Florida. Prior to completing her law degree, Cathleen worked on human rights issues in Guatemala.
Emphasis of Work
We focus on prevention and prosecution. Prevention is principally through pre-departure labor and trafficking rights education programs conducted by Defender network partners. We train the Defenders on the relevant laws and then assist with overall support as they execute their own outreach plans. Our government initiatives are similar but have an additional angle. Increased enforcement of the sending-country laws around recruitment will also reduce trafficking of temporary guestworkers. These workers now go to the US deeply in debt rendering them extremely vulnerable to exploitation.
Prosecution has focused, to date, on civil prosecutions/laws suits for trafficking victims and other labor abuses. By ensuring that abused migrants have an ability to seek justice once they go home (aka portable justice), we are increasing the possibilities for prosecutions. So many cases do not get identified before the migrant leaves the destination country. E.g. Unable to support themselves and not knowing their rights, many injured workers go home without ever receiving assistance only to pull their family into further poverty.
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Comentarios
Dear Cathleen Caron;
The importance of cross border alliances to ensure that trafficking survivors are afforded every possible assistance- and are able to help others who they may have been held with- as your example points out- can not be overstated. The work you are doing is very important. I wonder if you could share with us how you identify- or help your partner organizations identify people in need of help. Do you reach out to them- and if so how are these people identified as people in need- or alternatively, do they reach out to you- and if so- how do they know about the services you and your partner organizations offer?
Also- there is an organization based in the UK called CHASTE UK that is also working on portable justice issues. They have done some great work in this area and may be a good resource as you continue to expand and cultivate best practices.
Laura Cardinal
Public Health and Human Trafficking Specialist
Dear Laura,
Thanks for the question and encouragement.
The people in need of assistance either find the organizations that we partner with or visa versa. In the USA, for example, most low-wage worker and anti-trafficking organizations have their own targeted outreach efforts. In the sending-countries, most of the partners in the Global Workers Defenders Network have some human rights outreach programs to the communities they work in. We then train and assist them to add labor and trafficking issues to their outreach. Each program is unique, again relying on our model to support initiatives already in place. So workers may hear about the local organization that now handles employment problems in the USA through a radio ad or maybe their local church (we have several church-affiliated organizations in our Defender Network).
Sometimes our work in the sending countries connects abused migrants that are still n the USA. For example, a 16-year old boy was injured in a construction accident a few weeks ago. He did not know where to turn for help so he called his mom in rural Guatemala. The mother
went to the local priest who contacted one of our Defender partners.
Through this round about way, that boy was told what services were available to him in the USA. The circuitous route amazed me, but it just underscored the need in the sending-country for resources about rights and services in the destination countries.
Thanks for information about Chaste. I just looked it up on the web.
It looks like they do very important work with trafficked women. I look forward to learning about their work in the countries of origin as well
Cathleen
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____________________________________
Global Workers Justice Alliance
113 University Place, 8th Fl.
New York, NY 10003
tel. +1-917-238-0979
fax: + 1-501-632-0979
See our website at www.globalworkers.org
Dear Cathleen,
Thanks for telling us about your much needed portable justice project. I would like to know how you work with organised labour and the ILO on some of these issues. I would also be interested how you advertise your services so that returning workers know that they can be in touch with your organisation if they have a legal problem.
Thanks. I look forward to hearing more about your programme.
Heather
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Heather Cameron
Professor
Free University Berlin
University Challenge
Dear Heather,
Organized labor is definitely part of the strategy and it has been interesting how it has played out. In Guatemala, as a sending-country for example, what I quickly realized was that although the unions were generally very supportive, they were overwhelmed with incredible challenges in their own organizing efforts to take on their nationals who work outside of Guatemala. US unions see the benefit because they too have members that return home (voluntary or not) with pending legal problems. So they see portable justice as a direct benefit to their members. Moreover, one union has expressed interest in providing financial support (fingers crossed on that one).
Sending-country unions are also a potential source to identified workers who have suffered labor abuses. It could well be that a former member migrates and then goes to the union office to complain about their treatment while working abroad. Just last week, in fact, a union based in Indonesia contacted us about Indonesian workers on H-2B temporary visas that were underpaid while in the USA. We already have them in direct contact with an NGO in Texas that represents low-wage workers. Migrants, their mobility, and how creative we need to be to ensure they have access to justice never ceases to amaze me.
As for the ILO, besides speaking to some of their migration experts, I have not developed a strategy to become more engaged. Certainly, ILO complaints may be possible as we examine portable justice beyond domestic law enforcement.
As for your last question, workers do not contact us directly (the numbers would be overwhelming). Instead they contact our partner organizations who do their own outreach campaigns.
Cathleen
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____________________________________
Global Workers Justice Alliance
113 University Place, 8th Fl.
New York, NY 10003
tel. +1-917-238-0979
fax: + 1-501-632-0979
See our website at www.globalworkers.org
On July 16, 2008, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Ending Global Slavery” Competition and would like to pass on the following feedback for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators who are exposing, confronting and ending modern day slavery. We wish you continued luck with your sustainable, innovative, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“This is an impressive program because it helps transnational migrant workers retain rights in their destination country, even after they have returned home. By using existing instruments, expanding them to new areas, and applying them to new initiatives, this organization has the potential for long-term success. We would like to learn more about its plans for expansion.”
- Changemakers “Ending Global Slavery” Judges: United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking, International Organization for Migration, Design Within Reach, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Humanity United.
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The Changemakers Team
Ashoka's Changemakers
I appreciate the judges’ feedback very much. This competition was a unique opportunity to participate in a collaborative web competition and I gained much from the experience. Thank you.
As for the question to expansion, yes, we certainly plan to expand the Global Workers Defenders Network. How and when depends on demand for our services and financial support.
In the immediate term we are planning an extensive outreach campaign to US advocates after returning from upcoming trips to Mexico and Guatemala where we aim to bring the last partners formally on board. As a result of the outreach campaign, aimed at NGOS, private law firms and government entities that assist low wage migrant workers, we expect to receive many more calls for assistance for migrant workers who were exploited in the USA but have returned home. Undoubtedly, many of these new cases will be in areas where we are not yet currently working. When there seems to be enough demand in a particular geographic area, we will then undertake the discussions of formally expanding, whether in Mexico, Guatemala or a new country. As part of that process we will conduct outreach visits to start identifying potential new partners to determine the project’s viability in the new area. Unless there are organizations willing to work with us, we won’t expand into that area.
Of course, financing is an ongoing challenge and any expansion must be tempered by that reality. Although we have a revenue generating aspect to our case facilitations (which we hope to expand), we largely rely on foundation and individual support. However, in the few years since our founding (2005) I have learned that one cannot grow without taking risks. Often, expanded programmatic work--even without the financial support secured—will result in additional financing and many more opportunities. One can find inspiration in our core mission, that is to make the world more just for migrant workers who themselves take risks far greater than ours every day.
____________________________________
Global Workers Justice Alliance
113 University Place, 8th Fl.
New York, NY 10003
tel. +1-917-238-0979
fax: + 1-360-237-0979
See our website at www.globalworkers.org
Dear Cathleen:
I am based in Singapore and read your entry with great interest. As you know, developed countries in Asia like Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, have been bringing in migrant workers to take on jobs like domestic help, construction, sanitation service, etc. especially over the past 10 years, this has reached an all new high. Workers come from India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, even Nepal.
In recent years the plight of workers that are getting unfair treatment has gained significant visibility - especially for those who were deceived by local agents to come to this part of the world on the promise of a job, and either were left jobless or ill-used at a different job. These cases have jumped in recent months as the economic downturn has impacted the construction industry, with the workers left behind like roadkill. I am curious if Global Workers has plans to extend their coverage to workers that are sent to this part of the world? If so, could you kindly contact me as I am keen to find out who your partners are in this region.
Thank you and I ernestly hope you will experience much success in your good work.
Regards,
Patsian Low (Ms)
Partner
Serenity Associates LLP
Dear Ms. Patsian Low,
Thank you for your interest in our work. You are certainly correct that the situation for migrant workers worldwide is strikingly similar—workers arrive in the destination country with little to no information about their rights; are routinely exploited; then offered little mechanisms to redress those wrongs, even worse if they return (voluntarily or not) to their home countries. Portable justice issues—the right and ability of migrants to access justice even after they have departed the country of employment--the issue which we focus on, is sorely absent in the protection of migrants.
We are very interested in expanding our work to Asia. However, at this juncture, we are still only formally operating in 3 countries with our small staff. If we had the opportunity to expand, we would seriously consider it sooner than later as currently projected.
Since we are not yet working in your region, we have yet to have formal partnerships in place. I am familiar with some Asian organizations, especially the ones that participate in the international conferences on migrants rights (such as Migrant Rights International) but I am eager to make additional connections. Perhaps we can continue this discussion directly—cathleen@globalworkers.org. Thank you so much for this inquiry!
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____________________________________
Global Workers Justice Alliance
113 University Place, 8th Fl.
New York, NY 10003
tel. +1-917-238-0979
fax: + 1-501-632-0979
See our website at www.globalworkers.org
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