ICMC is pleased to speak to the international rights framework relevant to all migrants, including irregular migrants.

We do so from a perspective of a civil society practitioner, with programmes and staff in 40 countries and members all over the world working “on the ground” with refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons, regardless of faith, race, ethnicity or nationality. We also will speak on the basis of having published several books and studies on the matter of the rights of migrants. Two of them deserve mention because they speak directly to the subject at hand and cover it more fully than will this brief paper.

On the subject of rights that the range of core international human rights instruments articulate applicable to migrants, ICMC published a “toolkit”, entitled Strengthen Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families with Human Rights Treaties . This toolkit is one of the only studies to take a full horizontal look at migrant rights, examining those rights in accessible formats (including tables) across the first seven of the nine core international human rights treaties on human rights, beginning with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and finishing with the 1990 International Convention on Protection of the Rights of Al Migrant Workers and members of their Families (the Migrant Workers Convention.) Among other things, there is clear analysis—even specific columns in the tables—that present not only which rights, in which treaty, apply to migrants but also how a few of the rights—a few only—may apply differently or not at all depending on whether migrants and their family members are documented and in regular situations or not. We commend that publication and to you as a resource.

Regarding specifically the Migrant Workers Convention, which we further support as a member of the International Steering Committee on Ratification and as Secretariat for the International NGO Platform that works on implementation, we co-edited last year a new “Guide on Ratification”, a 39-page manual for States and others interested in the question of signing, ratifying or acceding to the Convention . Taking a practical approach to the Convention, the Guide briefly discusses the content of the Convention and how current State parties have found it useful as a practical framework, not only for the rights themselves but for organizing migration, improving cooperation with other States and promoting development. The Guide specifically addresses the arguments for and against signing the Convention, including a number of the false notions and myths that continue to circulate.

With that introduction and those resources available, the rest of this paper will briefly explore three points regarding the rights of migrants in an irregular situation: [1] those rights within the broad set of core international human rights instruments, [2] the particular importance of the Migrant Workers Convention, and [3] the principal political argument for ratification of the Convention today. That will be followed by three simple recommendations. The points and recommendations should be considered in the context of the landmark statement unanimously approved by the Global Migration Group on 30 September, emphasizing the rights of irregular migrants, and also roundtable session 1.2 of next month’s Global Forum on Migration and Development, which will focus on irregular migration.

To read the statement in its entirety, please see the pdf file below.

A snapshot of the international human rights framework relevant for migrants in an irregular situation (447.22 KB)