State delegates to the United Nations kick off negotiations on the Global Compact for Migration (Tuesday, 20 February 2018, New York City). Photograph courtesy of CELS.The first round of negotiations of the Global Compact for Migration was held last week in New York City. At the same time, states began to discuss a Global Compact on Refugees, which aims to make the 1951 Refugee Convention (signed in Geneva) and its protocols more effective. Both processes arise from a commitment made by United Nations member states in the New York Declaration of 2016. Together they represent an immense opportunity for the international community to address the challenges of human mobility in the twenty-first century.
The Global Compact for Migration is undoubtedly the more novel political development of these two parallel processes. Since the 1950s, clear regulations and a specific institutional structure – the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – have protected people on the move due to cultural, ethnic, political or social persecution. The Global Compact for Migration is undoubtedly the more novel political development of these two parallel processes.
But the political commitment regarding other forms of international mobility has been absent. It took 13 years for the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (CMW) of 1990 to enter into force. With only 51 state parties, it is currently one of the United Nations treaties with the lowest number of ratifications. Furthermore, the international forums on migration carried out to date have been extremely precarious from an institutional perspective and have been disconnected from areas of decision-making; nor have they taken on board international human rights logic or standards.
