***Learn more about International Migrant's Day, 18 December 2005:
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/international-migrants-day.php


Statement by December 18

International Migrant’s Day is an opportunity for the international community to recognize and value the contributions made by migrants around the world to the cultures and economies of the host countries as well as their countries of origin. Today, however, migrants find them-selves regularly in situations characterized by human rights abuses and an increasing level of discrimination and racism.

It is against this background that December 18 – an international resource and advocacy centre on migrants’ rights – continues to call for universal ratification and effective implementation of the U.N. Migrant Workers Convention. This unique Convention puts the human rights of all migrant workers and members of their families at the centre and underlines the fundamental principle of non-discrimination.

 

We welcome the submission of the first initial reports by Mali and Mexico to the U.N. Committee on Migrant Workers and encourage other States Parties to live up to their responsibilities under the Convention.

 

The seven new ratifications of the Convention this year are a very encouraging sign, as is the growing support by Central and South-American States. However, of grave concern to us is the fact that no ratifications were received from the traditional countries of destination.

Therefore, given that most obligations foreseen under the Convention rest on destination countries, it is important that the UN Committee finds a way of addressing this situation. One way to do this would be for the Committee to emphasize that States Parties – especially the countries of origin - must take up their responsibilities when it comes to transfers, duties and taxes, the safety and support of their nationals abroad and following their return.

 

On the other hand, migration patterns do change over time and traditional countries of emigration sometimes become transit and to some extent destination countries.

 

Furthermore, it is crucially important that the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from individuals subject to their jurisdiction who claim that their rights under the Convention have been violated is recognized by all States Parties.  We call on all governments to make as soon as possible a declaration on this matter under article 77.

 

We believe it is important that the six other UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies examine migrant rights in a transversal way under the relevant articles of their respective Conventions. In this way, more States will be scrutinized and held responsible.

 

At the European level, the year has been marked by mass expulsions from the Italian island of Lampedusa and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. These tragic events illustrate the externalisation of the restrictive asylum and immigration policy of the EU, characterized by the readmission agreements with countries with poor human rights records, the unfair burden imposed on third countries and double standards in criticizing human rights performance by third countries when fundamental human rights are severely eroded in various recent decisions of the European Union. We regret that the focus is not put more on political, economic and social cooperation from the perspective of combating the root causes of emigration.

 

It is encouraging to see that both civil society organizations and institutions such as the European Parliament keep pushing for the protection of the human rights of migrants and for the ratification of the U.N. Migrant Workers Convention. Similar calls were made in the submissions prepared by a wide group of actors as part of the consultation process on the Commission’s Green Paper on Economic Migration.

 

In our contribution to this consultation process we listed a series of specific recommendations regarding employment strategies for undocumented and documented migrants. We regretted that the European Commission was putting forward its ideas based on a utilitarian approach to migration policy. We consider it must be complemented by a rights-based approach to migration management taking into consideration the existing international human rights standards as well as major economic and social inequalities between poor and rich countries, often caused by the impact of EU trade policy and the course of action taken by international financial institutions.

 

The absence of any reference in the Green Paper to the UN Convention and other relevant international instruments is of a particular concern to us. We are very disappointed with this apparent lack of recognition on the Commission’s side of the broader international legal context in which any proposal on economic migration to the EU should be advanced. The Convention should be used as one of the main benchmarks against which to measure the emerging economic migration policy of the EU.

 

Finally, we can only regret that the Global Commission on International Migration in its concluding report fails to call upon all States to ratify the Convention, which to us is in contradiction with the Commission’s own statement that “people who are moving from one country to another are able to exercise the rights to which they are entitled under international law.”

 

International Migrant’s Day 2005 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention. We hope that by next year’s High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development we will have welcomed many more States Parties to this core international human rights treaty.

 

December18