in the household in which they work, decent living conditions respecting their privacy must be ensured under Article 6. The ability to freely reach agreements for daily and weekly rest or annual leave is stated in Article 9. It further stresses that every domestic worker, including children, has the right to a secure and healthy working environment and state parties shall have to take steps to make sure of their occupational health and safety.22 Some other recent up-to-date major ILO Conventions relating to works by children also not ratified by Bangladesh include the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and the Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131).23 However, Bangladesh is in the last stage of ratification of Convention No. 138.24 As Bangladeshi courts do not treat international treaties signed by the executive as binding laws unless their provisions are expressly incorporated into domestic laws, these international instruments have limited practical value for the intended beneficiaries.25 However, when the domestic law on a particular point is ambiguous or there is a total absence of any provision on a particular point, courts may draw upon the principles enunciated in the international legal instruments signed by the executive.26 Therefore, the Bangladeshi courts would not normally rely upon or refer to international legal instruments unless domestic law on a point is non-existent or non liquet. Thus, unless the provisions of an international convention ratified by Bangladesh has been incorporated in a domestic statute, essentially the practical value of ratification of international legal instruments by 22 23 Ibid, Article 13(1) of the Convention. International Labour Organization, Up-to-date Conventions Not Ratified by Bangladesh <http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11210:0::NO:11210:P11210_COUNTRY_ID:103500> at 22nd May 2014. 24 International Labour Organization, Governing Body’s 320th Session, Review of annual reports under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at <http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_236200.pdf> (7 February 2014) at 15. 25 Hussain Muhammad Ershad v. Bangladesh and Others (2001) 21 BLD (AD) 69, paras 2, 3, 12. 26 Ibid. 8 Work