LONDON MEP Jean Lambert has demanded that all governments sign-up to an international convention designed to protect the rights of domestic workers after a 24-year-old Sri Lankan child minder was beheaded in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
Rizana Nafeek was publicly beheaded on January 9th after she was convicted of murdering a baby in her care.
The execution was carried out even as worldwide appeals for clemency – including from the EU and the Government of Sri Lanka – were ongoing.
The Green Party MEP said: “The death penalty is abhorrent, and I will always condemn its use. But this case is especially worrying, not least because Ms Nafeek was only 17, herself a minor, at the time of the alleged crime.
“Domestic workers are a particularly vulnerable group, especially in some countries, including Saudi Arabia.
“There are a reported 45 migrant domestic workers facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia: indeed Amnesty International has recently reported that many of those executed in the country in recent years have been foreign nationals – mostly migrant workers from developing countries.”
Now Ms Lambert, the Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to South Asia, has called on all governments – including that of Saudi Arabia – to fully implement the International Labour Organisation’s Convention on Domestic Workers to ensure much-needed protection for this vulnerable group of workers