{"id":19967,"date":"2019-01-18T11:34:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T06:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/jwt2015\/?p=19967"},"modified":"2019-01-18T11:34:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T06:34:37","slug":"un-global-compact-for-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/internationalaffairs\/un-global-compact-for-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Global Compact for Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UN<\/a><\/h3>\n

The real work starts now<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n

On December 11, during a conference at Marrakech, Morocco, the member states of the United Nations adopted a global compact on migration entitled ‘The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration’. This non-binding accord was finalized in July after 18 months of talks and discussions. A total of 150 governments were represented at the UN conference at Heads of State level or by senior officials. The adoption of the compact is being seen as a victory for a progressive new framework of how the world views migrants and agrees to protect their basic human rights. It states that it is designed to “foster international cooperation among all relevant actors on migration, acknowledging that no state can address migration alone, and upholds the sovereignty of states and their obligations under international law.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With migration an increasingly divisive political issue in the United States and Europe, could global governance step in to address the problem? More than 100 countries met on Dec. 10-11 in Marrakech, Morocco, to formally adopt the first treaty on migration negotiated under the United Nations.<\/p>\n

The Global Compact for Migration is the result of two years of hard negotiations led by Louise Arbour, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. At first glance, the compact seems a significant breakthrough in times of tough rhetoric and harsh policies for migrants. The draft text acknowledges the rights of migrants and the need to protect the vulnerable of them. However, the compact will not result in immediate changes in how countries treat migrants.<\/p>\n

Why create a global agreement on migration?<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Global Compact was initiated in September 2016 when 193 countries met at the United Nations in New York for a high-level summit on migration and refugees. The summit followed a Northern Hemisphere summer that saw a substantial increase in migrants and asylum-seekers crossing the Mediterranean into Europe. Many in Europe viewed the deaths at sea and the increase in asylum-seekers as a \u201ccrisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 85 percent of the world’s refugees housed in developing countries, not in the West, there is a broader crisis that is not as widely acknowledged. The summit produced an agreement to establish two separate tracks of negotiations \u2014 one for migration, another for refugees. Refugees are treated differently under international law than migrants because they are fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution.<\/p>\n

Many countries hoped to see new international frameworks for migrants and displaced peoples. The United States was strongly invested in global cooperation, and in September 2016, then-President Barack Obama hosted a Leaders’ Summit on Refugees at the White House, as a complement to the UN summit. The UN summit resulted in the \u201cNew York Declaration,\u201d which called for the creation of a Global Compact for \u201cSafe, Orderly and Regular Migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0Toward A New Global Compact on Migration<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

The final draft of the compact, issued in July 2018, includes some notable breakthroughs. Countries reaffirmed their commitment to protecting the human rights of migrants and refugees \u201cregardless of their migration status\u201d (preamble, paragraph 11). This is a significant step \u2014 countries recognize the rights of refugees but are reluctant to acknowledge migrants’ rights, and there is no international treaty for migrants’ rights equivalent to the Refugee Convention.<\/p>\n

The final draft also represents a small win for people affected by climate change, as it encourages nations to ensure they have access to humanitarian assistance and respect their rights, wherever they might end up. The compact also affirms that migration is a \u201csource of prosperity, innovation and sustainable development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here’s where the Global Compact falls short.<\/p>\n

The compact is the first international agreement on migration under the United Nations. However, it is not a binding international treaty that will protect migrants’ rights, as many critics claim. The compact has three principal weaknesses. First, the final draft is divided between affirming the rights of migrants and affirming national sovereignty. The compact stays conveniently vague on how the international community should deal with cases in which countries choose not to protect migrants’ rights.<\/p>\n

Second, the Global Compact is not hard international law but a \u201cnon-legally binding, cooperative framework.\u201d Its primary purpose is symbolic \u2014 to demonstrate that countries can identify mutual areas of cooperation on migration. The draft is weak on implementation, monitoring and review mechanisms \u2014 which suggests each country will decide how to implement it.<\/p>\n

Third, a number of significant players have pulled out of the negotiations. In December 2017, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced that the US would not participate, stating that \u201cwe will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Australia, Hungary, Switzerland, Israel, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and, most recently, Italy, have announced that they will not participate in the final summit in Marrakech. Germany’s Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland also campaigned hard but ultimately failed to pull Germany out of the Global Compact. When the German parliament voted in favour of signing the Global Compact, several hundred people took to the streets to protest the decision.<\/p>\n

Many global leaders share concerns similar to those expressed by President Trump. Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton explained, \u201cWe’re not going to surrender our sovereignty \u2014 I’m not going to allow unelected bodies to dictate to us, to the Australian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Austrian government stated that signing the pact, even though it is not binding, could eventually help lead to the recognition of a \u201chuman right to migration.\u201d This position is not surprising, as it follows a more general trend of scepticism toward global institutions, international law and human rights \u2014 and a desire to close borders to migrants. Perhaps the only surprise is that more countries haven’t abandoned the Global Compact.<\/p>\n

Countries don’t want new international laws to protect migrants.<\/p>\n

Countries have long rejected attempts to expand international law to cover vulnerable migrants, as a research has examined. In 2011, the then UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ant\u00f3nio Guterres sought to expand his agency’s protection mandate. He argued that \u201cmore and more people are being forced to flee\u201d for reasons outside the parameters of the 1951 Refugee Convention and that countries should assist these people through his agency.<\/p>\n

In 2011, in lead-up to a major ministerial meeting, Guterres and agency officials urged the international community to formulate and adopt a set of principles to protect people forced to leave their countries who did not qualify for official refugee status. However, the vast majority of countries rejected Guterres’s plea, well before the era of Trump and other leaders taking a tough stance on immigration.<\/p>\n

Countries were \u2014 and are \u2014 wary about creating international laws that place restrictions on their migration policies. The Global Compact is a notable new international agreement but will have little real force, given its ambiguity and lack of obligation \u2014 and the unfortunate fact that countries are reluctant to commit to new international obligations on migrants’ rights.<\/p>\n

Objectives<\/span><\/h3>\n

The compact comprises 23 objectives for the management of migration at local, national, regional and global levels.<\/p>\n

They include:<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong><\/span> Collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies
\n(2)<\/strong> <\/span>Minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin
\n(3)<\/strong> <\/span>Provide accurate and timely information at all stages of migration
\n(4)<\/strong> <\/span>Ensure that all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation
\n(5)<\/strong><\/span> Enhance availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration
\n(6)<\/strong> <\/span>Facilitate fair and ethical recruitment and safeguard conditions that ensure decent work
\n(7)<\/strong> <\/span>Address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration
\n(8)<\/strong> <\/span>Save lives and establish coordinated international efforts on missing migrants
\n(9)<\/strong> <\/span>Strengthen the transnational response to smuggling of migrants
\n(10)<\/strong> <\/span>Prevent, combat and eradicate trafficking in persons in the context of international migration
\n(11)<\/strong><\/span> Manage borders in an integrated, secure and coordinated manner
\n(12)<\/strong><\/span> Strengthen certainty and predictability in migration procedures for appropriate screening, assessment and referral
\n(13)<\/strong> <\/span>Use migration detention only as a measure of last resort and work towards alternatives
\n(14)<\/strong> <\/span>Enhance consular protection, assistance and cooperation throughout the migration cycle
\n(15)<\/strong> <\/span>Provide access to basic services for migrants
\n(16)<\/strong><\/span> Empower migrants and societies to realize full inclusion and social cohesion
\n(17)<\/strong> <\/span>Eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration
\n(18)<\/strong><\/span> Invest in skills development and facilitate mutual recognition of skills, qualifications and competences
\n(19)<\/strong><\/span> Create conditions for migrants and diasporas to fully contribute to sustainable development in all countries
\n(20)<\/strong> <\/span>Promote faster, safer and cheaper transfer of remittances and foster financial inclusion of migrants
\n(21)<\/strong><\/span> Cooperate in facilitating safe and dignified return and readmission, as well as sustainable reintegration
\n(22)<\/strong> <\/span>Establish mechanisms for the portability of social security entitlements and earned benefits
\n(23)<\/strong> <\/span>Strengthen international cooperation and global partnerships for safe, orderly and regular migration<\/p>\n

Opposition to the Pact<\/span><\/h3>\n

A number of countries, including the United States, had refused to sign the Compact, insisting that it would increase migration and make it harder for individual countries to refuse migrants.<\/p>\n

Critics also argue that the compact does not distinguish between economic migrants and refugees.<\/p>\n

Hungary, Australia, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Italy, Switzerland and Chile have all either refused to sign it or expressed reservations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The real work starts now On December 11, during a conference at Marrakech, Morocco, the member states of the United Nations adopted a global compact on migration entitled ‘The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration’. This non-binding accord was finalized in July after 18 months of talks and discussions. A total of 150 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":19968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,10391],"tags":[257,9668,40,2231,7231,258,10403],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}