Only two weeks are left until the first International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) will take place in New York. The meetings at the United Nations headquarter will not be the only events, though – migrant civil society has announced several parallel and preparatory events, most of which will take place in a hybrid format. Here is an overview which will be updated as more events are announced:
To start with the “official” events: The IMRF “proper” will take place from Tuesday, 17 May until Friday, 20 May.
At the time of writing, the program website is a bit taciturn – the first one and a half days there will be roundtables, followed by a policy debate (Facilitated by IOM Director-General) at the afternoon of 18 May and then two days of general debate in the plenary with the adoption of the progress declaration closing off the proceedings
https://www.un.org/en/migration2022/agenda
Side events “will take place outside of the official conference hours of 10 AM – 1 PM and 3 PM – 6PM” (all New York time), but none are listed so far which will certainly change soon.
On 16 May, an Informal Interactive Multi-Stakeholder Hearing will take place from 10 AM to 6 PM.
For this, a detailed schedule and concept note is already available; interventions will be made by a number of stakeholders (will be interesting to see how they differentiate between “Migrant association” – “Civil society” and “Migrant and diaspora organization”) and by representatives of different regions
– you can download it here:
Now for the migrant civil society events
There have been plenty taken place, including the webinars organized by People’s Migration Challenge (PMC). The latest round is called “The IMRF Reflections” and two more are scheduled for May 4 and May 17 – you can register for them here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAufu2tqD0vEtDNLxkX-e3dLmzEGuOKfpfx
These have been exclusively online, but events around the IMRF will take place in a hybrid format.
They will start with a Civil Society Preparatory Day (CSPD) for the IMRF on Sunday, 15 May from 9 AM to 5 PM where p eople can join in-person in New York (in the Church Center for the United Nations if I am not mistaken – same venue as during the UN-HLD back in 2014…) and participate online via Zoom.
This is followed by People’s Forum: A People’s Migration Challenge Parallel Event to the IMRF.
It will start on Monday, 16 May, evening with a short debrief on the multi-stakeholder hearing (long day ahead..) and then continue every day until Friday, 20 May. Find the first program overview here:
Besides this cluster of events, the 11th International Consultation of the Churches Witnessing with Migrants will take place in the lead-up to the IMRF, i.e. May 14-16, 2022.
Here is the schedule for now.
May 13 – North America caucus for CWWM North America
May 14 – Consultation Proper
May 15 AM – CWWM North America Meeting
May 15 PM – Grassroots Migrants and Refugee Forum (GMRF)
May 16 – IMRF Multi-Stakeholders’ Meeting (for those accredited)
(I assume participation is limited, so I am not posting a link for now but will change this if I learn otherwise).
That’s it for now, check back for updates!
The GFMD, Migration, Development and Human Rights 