Originally published on the CGS blog on December 18, 2014.
Let us make migration work for the benefit of migrants and countries alike. We owe this to the millions of migrants who, through their courage, vitality and dreams, help make our societies more prosperous, resilient and diverse.
—Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General
In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 18 December International Migrants Day to commemorate the UN’s 1990 adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Although migration to and from countries is a world-wide phenomenon, only 42 countries (including Indonesia, the Philippines, and countries in Latin America and North and West Africa) have ratified the convention.
The convention created a Committee on Migrant Workers, which meets in Geneva every four years to review a report of State parties on their application of the convention. The convention also created a mechanism by which the Committee could receive individual complaints. Only three States have ratified this individual complaints mechanism: Mexico, Guatemala and Uruguay.
Today, there are some 232 million persons who reside and work outside their country of birth. The reasons for migration are diverse—most often they are economic, but there are also refugees from armed conflict and oppression, and increasingly what are called “ecological refugees”—persons who leave their home area due to changing environmental conditions: drought, floods, rising sea levels, etc. Climate change may increase the number of these ecological refugees.
Although migration is an important issue with a multitude of consequences in both countries of origin and destination, the Committee on Migrant Workers—whose members function in their individual capacity and not as State representatives—has a low profile among what are called “UN Treaty Bodies” –the committees which review the reports of State parties to UN human rights conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Since the great majority of States receiving migrants—Western Europe and North America—have not ratified the Convention on Migrant Workers, other ways have to be found within the UN system to address migration issues. Outside of but in close cooperation with the UN, the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Global Migration Group were created to address the opportunities and challenges of international migration. Within the UN, there was the recent October 2013 “High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development.”
The Governments at the dialogue unanimously adopted a Declaration (A/68/L.5) calling for greater cooperation to address the challenges of irregular migration and to facilitate safe, orderly, and regular migration. The Declaration also emphasized the need to respect the human rights of migrants and to promote international labor standards. It strongly condemns manifestations of racism and intolerance, stressing the need to improve public perceptions of migrants.
UN conferences and such dialogues or forums serve as a magnet, pulling Governments to agree to higher ideals and standards collectively than they would individually. This is not simply hypocrisy—though there is certainly an element of hypocrisy, as some Governments have no plans to put these aims into practice. Rather, it is a sort of “collective unconscious” of Government representatives who have a vision of an emerging world society based on justice and peace.
The role of non-governmental organizations is to remind Government representatives constantly that it is they who have written the text and voted for it without voicing reservations. Numerous States that ratified the International Convention on Migrant Workers made reservations limiting the application of the convention on their territory. Thus, the Declaration of the High-level Dialogue was not written by the Association of World Citizens, but by Government diplomats.
The Declaration is a strong text and covers most of the important issues, including human mobility as a key factor for sustainable development, the role of women and girls (who represent nearly half of all migrants), the need to protect the rights of migrant children, and the importance of remittances to
families.
The Declaration merits greater prominence in the ongoing discussions and debates on migration policies and practices.
