Najwa Hanna
Human Rights, Trade Unions and Quality Public Services for Refugees and Migrant Workers
To develop the capacity of public service trade unions to address migration and refugee issues from a rights-based perspective.
Through the project, the PSI aims to build awareness and capacity building within the trade union movement in MENA countries to promote access to quality public services and to fight for decent work and social protection for both refugees and the local population.
Video
As the world continues to battle the covid pandemic, the climate crisis also continues to deepen, with its most profound impacts witnessed in disasters caused by extreme weather occurrences such as, forest fires, floods and typhoons or by slow-onset events such as, droughts and desertification.
Public Services and the Triple Cs: Covid, Conflicts and the Climate Crisis
Driven by conflicts, violence, extreme poverty, environmental calamities, loss of livelihood and unemployment, the world is currently facing forced population displacement in proportions larger than those seen in the aftermath of the Second World War. As conflicts and violence continue in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa and in the Middle East, the number of refugees is expected to rise.
This project aims to strengthen advocacy and social dialogue in promoting access of refugees and migrants to quality public health services. This includes building awareness and capacity among the health workers providing the services and defending decent working conditions. Through the project, trade unions, in alliances with civil society, are encouraged to use existing international conventions and labour standards as tools for union education, awareness-raising, advocacy and social dialogue for the human rights and equal treatment for refugees and migrants at all levels.
Video
This video, produced in Lebanon, is part of the project "Human Rights, Trade Unions and Quality Public Services for Refugees and Migrant Workers" implemented by Public Services International in partnership with Union to Union (U2U) and the Swedish affiliates, namely, Vardforbundet, ASSR, VISION, ST and Kommunal.
Quality public services are human rights
The project involves 4 countries, namely, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Algeria in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). These countries have been dealing with large movements of migrants and refugees. Though the countries are also source countries of migrants, the project will mainly be dealing with this phenomenon from the point of view of receiving and hosting refugees and migrants.
Target beneficiaries of the project are the national trade union leaders, men and women, general secretaries, presidents, members of executive committees, branch representatives, delegates, communication committee members, and the men and women activists from the PSI affiliated unions in Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Overall, the project will benefit refugees and migrant workers and their host communities through improvement in their human rights situation and defending access to quality public services for everyone.
More information:
Flickr album - PSI mission - May 2018
Spark presentation - PSI mission - May 2018
Flickr album - PSI strategy workshop - Dec 2018
Video
This video was produced in Tunisia in the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in the framework of the PSI MENA refugee project.
Video: Together to implement the law on the prevention of discrimination
Articles and events
Video
This video focuses on the need to build quality public services for refugees in Lebanon. This is part of the PSI project on "Trade Unions, Human Rights and Quality Public Services for Refugees and Migrants in the MENA region" that PSI is implementing in partnership with Union to Union and the PSI Swedish affiliates.
Video: Building quality public services for refugees in Lebanon
Video
This video was produced for the PSI project on “Trade Unions, Human Rights and Quality Public Services for Refugees and Migrants in the MENA region” that PSI is implementing in partnership with Union to Union and the PSI Swedish affiliates (Vårdförbundet, Vision, Fackförbundet ST, Akademikerförbundet SSR and Kommunal).
Video: Public healthcare for all - PSI Syrian refugees project in Lebanon
Video
This video focuses on quality public education for all. This video was produced for the PSI project on “Trade Unions, Human Rights and Quality Public Services for Refugees and Migrants in the MENA region” that PSI is implementing in partnership with Union to Union and the PSI Swedish affiliates (Vårdförbundet, Vision, Fackförbundet ST, Akademikerförbundet SSR and Kommunal).
Video: Public education for all - PSI Syrian refugees project in Lebanon
Video
Nissrin El Massri shares the current situation in Lebanon and how her union, the Social Workers Syndicate, continues to be on the frontlines, despite their own members also being displaced. They have lost three members, with their babies and families buried in the rubble.