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“Migrants are human beings with human rights”

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 18 2013 (IPS) - UN experts have urged member states to ratify all  international and regional human rights treaties, including the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, and to implement them fully.

The appeal came in a joint statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, François Crépeau; the Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Abdelhamid El Jamri; and the Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Felipe González.

Released on International Migrants Day commemorated on December 18, the statement said “We must keep in mind that migrants are first and foremost human beings with human rights, and cannot be perceived or portrayed only as agents for economic development.

“” Migrants should not also be perceived or portrayed only as helpless victims in need of rescue, or criminal frauds. States authorities have a responsibility to fight expressions of racism and xenophobia, to charge perpetrators of violence or discrimination against migrants, and foster a public discourse that encourages openness to differences, acceptance of social change and celebration of diversity.”

The statement also said: “” All migrants, by virtue of their human dignity, are protected by international human rights law, without discrimination, on the same footing as citizens, regardless of their administrative status or situation. But, despite the legal framework in place, migrants worldwide continue to suffer abuse, exploitation and violence.

In the Declaration of the High-level Dialogue, States adopted a human rights language for discussing migration issues within the UN. But there is still reluctance to make the UN a central forum for discussing migration policies.

States continue to attempt to govern migration largely on a unilateral or bilateral basis, and this has led to a lack of coherence among global, regional and national governance, and a retreat from binding UN-based frameworks, with State preference for informal processes, such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development and Regional Consultative Processes.

But these lack a strong human rights approach, as well as monitoring and implementation mechanisms, due to their non-normative nature.  Although such forums are necessary to build political trust between States on issues which are electorally sensitive at domestic level, migrants need that this trust be transformed into more formal agreements and developed into tools for meaningful policy development within formal cooperation frameworks, including at the UN, the statement added..

Following up on the outcome of the High-level Dialogue, we urge States to consider in their national migration policies, issues such as:

the decriminalization of irregular migration,
· the development of alternatives to administrative detention of migrants in an irregular situation,
· combatting xenophobia and discrimination against migrants
· the rights of migrant children,
· economic, social and cultural rights,
· the effective protection of life and human rights at international borders,
· and a meaningful access to recourse for migrants who are victims of human rights violations.”

 
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