Daily Star - U.N. urges full probe into migrant worker’s death, April 04, 2012

BEIRUT: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery urged Lebanon’s government Tuesday to carry out a full investigation into the death of Alem Dechasa-Desisa, the Ethiopian domestic worker who apparently committed suicide last month after widely publicized abuse outside her consulate.

“Like many people around the world I watched the video of the physical abuse of Alem Dechasa on a Beirut street,” Gulnara Shahinian said in a statement. LBCI TV posted a video of two men, one of whom has since been charged with causing and contributing to her suicide, beating and dragging Dechasa-Desisa, 33, into a car outside the Ethiopian consulate. Doctors said she later committed suicide while in hospital.

“I strongly urge the Lebanese authorities to carry out a full investigation into the circumstances leading to her death,” Shahinian said. “The cruel image on the website reminded me of the many migrant workers I met in Lebanon during my official visit to the country last year ... women who had been victims of domestic servitude told me they had been under the absolute control of their employers through economic exploitation and suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse.”

There are approximately 200,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, and Dechasa-Desisa’s case has shed light on the problems they face. Various NGOs have condemned her abuse and urged investigation.

“There are a number of reports circulating about the human rights violations Alem Dechasa experienced ... and the facts surrounding her death,” Shahinian said. “States are under an obligation to ensure the realization of the right to truth about violations in order to end impunity and promote and protect human rights and provide redress to victims and their families.”


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