Today is #InternationalMigrantsDay : Compact instead of Convention? A Collection of #MigrantsDay ressources

Today is International Migrants Day, marking the 26th anniversary of the adoption of the “International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families” by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Since last year there has only been one additional ratification, bringing the total number up to a mere 49, still with no ratification by a major receiving country in sight. With the deliberations on the planned “global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration” dominating the agenda, this seems unlikely to change. At the recent GFMD in Bangladesh, the Head of the UN delegation Pierre Mayaduon made it very explicitly clear that the EU does and will not support the declaration and sees no need for it…

NOTE: I am shocked by the many hateful messages that are using the #migrantsday hashtag this year, in particular from the US – we have our work cut out for us in the age of Trump…

As in the past years, I have compiled some resources and Statements surrounding International Migrants Day:

 

Speaking of Europe, December 18 also reminds me to commemorate the once very valuable resource december18.net that had to shut down because of lack of funding (don’t try to visit the site now, it has apparently been bought by a diet company – slim pickings, indeed…)

Here is an older report by them on “Positions of Civil Society Actors, Government Agencies and Policy Makers in the EU Member States”

http://www.epim.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/The-UN-Migrant-Workers-Convention-steps-towards-ratification-in-Europe.pdf

Let’s see what the European Commission has to say in their statement on the occasion of this year’s International Migrant Day:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-16-4440_pl.htm

 

In his last message on the occasion, the departing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement in which he tellingly does not even mention the convention but rather refers to the compact as well as to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development:

http://www.un.org/en/events/migrantsday/messages.shtml

 

You can find several contributions in observance of the International Migrants Day at the World Banks “People On the Move” Blog, addressing issue such as business, remittances (obviously 😉 sustainable development etc:

https://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/

 

And here is a Message from IOM DG William Lacy Swing.

https://www.iom.int/news/international-migrants-day-2016-message-iom-dg-william-lacy-swing

 

The ILO marks the day with announcing the winners of the Award for Excellence in reporting on “Breaking Stereotypes on Labour Migration”

http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/policy-areas/guidance-for-journalists/awarding-excellence-2016/lang–en/index.htm

Here is the call  International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF)

http://idwfed.org/en/updates/global-free-rosie-long-live-domestic-workers-union-lebanon-long-live-migrant-domestic-workers-Rights

and  a related campaign:(scroll down for English text)

 

Here you can find the Statement of the Scalabrini International Migration Network on United Nation’s International Migrants Day:

http://www.simn-global.org/news_post.php?category=news&news_id=317

 

The US National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights wants to “honor International Migrants Day with a call to action to lift up and respect human rights of all migrants, and to commit to challenge and end all forms of racism and xenophobia”:

http://www.nnirr.org/drupal/international-migrants-day

Here is a story by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC)

https://www.icmc.net/newsroom/news-and-statements/international-migrants-day-haitians-at-the-mexican-border

Migrant Forum in ASia (MFA) issued this Statement:

http://mfasia.org/2016-international-migrants-day-statement/

 

In Singapore, NGO HOME (Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics) urges its government to ratify the UN migrant workers’ convention

http://www.home.org.sg/home-urges-government-to-ratify-un-migrant-workers-convention/

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/12/18/home-urges-government-to-ratify-un-migrant-workers-convention/

And a related story:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/kudos-to-ngos-that-help-spores-migrant-workers?&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=addtoany

 

 

If you have a statement, activity etc. relating to International Migrants Day, feel free to contact me, and I will include it in this post:

 

 

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