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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Global Workers Justice Alliance
Sector Focus - Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2005
Project URL: http://www.globalworkers.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 - Annual budget;
Annual revenue generated; Number of staff: 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.
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.
Contact Information:
Cathleen Caron
Executive Director Global Workers Justice Alliance (NGO) cathleen@globalworkers.org 113 University Pl, 8th Fl New York, NY 10003 United States Tel: 917-238-0979 Website: http://www.globalworkers.org Discussions about this entry |
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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
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
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