People's Migration Challenge: Public IMRF Debrief
The People's Migration Challenge (PMC) invites you to join them for a reflection on the first International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), as well as on ways forward in the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).
Join this event on Tuesday, 5 July 2022, from 9:00am-10:30am (EDT). The PMC will also be joined by distinguished panelists representing government, UN, civil society, and other stakeholders.
Panelists will include:
- Fernando de la Mora, Coordinator for Economic, Social, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations
- Helena Olea Rodriguez, Associate Director for Programs, Alianza Americas
- Jonathan Prentice, Head of Secretariat, United Nations Network for Migration
- Elana Wong, Co-Global Focal Point for the Migration Youth & Children Platform
Click here to view the event flyer, and click here to register.
NGO CoM Remarks for World Refugee Day
At the June monthly meeting of the NGO Committee on Migration (NGO CoM), Eva Sandis presented the following remarks in advance of World Refugee Day (20 June). This year, the theme of World Refugee Day is the right to seek safety:
I am pleased that I was asked to pay tribute here today, on behalf of our Committee, to refugees across the globe in recognition of World Refugee Day.
Concern with refugees is in the DNA of the NGO Committee on Migration. Two of its 3 founding Mothers –Eva Richter and I -- are refugees, and the third, Rosita Resnick, is a migrant from Argentina. Our Committee has always counted refugees as well as migrants among its members, indeed, frequently its most active ones.
Since its inception, in 2007, our Committee has worked tirelessly to protect ALL migrants and their human rights in accordance with the United Nations Charter. We advocated for the adoption and implementation of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, for the Global Compact on Refugees; and for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
Our focus has always been on solutions for those in need, especially the most vulnerable: children; climate refugees; migrants in mixed migration and other vulnerable situations, including trafficking, smuggling, violence, torture, and traumatization; and those subjected to racism and xenophobia.
We have advocated for both refugees and migrants in our Mission Visits with Member States, and in our monthly meetings. We have also advocated as contributing members to the Civil Society Action Committee, of which we were one of the founders and co-conveners. From the outset, in 2016, as a self-organized civil society movement, it was composed of an equal number of NGOs focused on refugees and of NGOs focused on migrants, working together. All the points of our Committee’s advocacy regarding the IMRF Progress Declaration are included in the Action Committee’s statement for “12 Key Ways for States to Get Back on Track.”
For our Committee there is a clear call to move forward from the IMRF and engage in a strong civil society advocacy on behalf of a future that leaves no one behind. That means continuing direct talks with governments interested in partnering with civil society to find solutions to the needs of migrants, refugees, and displaced persons.
There is a need for a strong emphasis on protecting migrants in vulnerable situations, especially those in mixed migration movements, including recognized and de facto refugees; and in that context, for strong support for the call of over 150 Mayors and city leaders, in their Marrakech Declaration of 2018, vigorously renewed at the IMRF, for the interaction of the Global Compact for Migration and its 2018 sister, the Global Compact on Refugees, implementing them “in unison”.
I will only touch on the importance of the two Compacts working together because that requires a full Program of its own, with consistent follow-up. However, even a brief comparison of the priorities and proposed next steps for the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees and those for the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration show important common denominators, including:
- The need for strengthened systems of international protection, enhancing access to territory and ensuring proper documentation of refugees and migrants;
- Strengthening coordination between national governments and local communities;
- Addressing climate change as a risk multiplier;
- Enhancing self-reliance through work options;
- Access to services, especially housing, education, and health;
- Expansion of safe pathways and arrivals (this speaks to this year’s theme of World Refugee Day, namely: seeking safety is a human right)
- More systematic participation by refugees and migrants in all matters concerning them.
These common denominators cry out for a working together of the two global compacts. This has been suggested repeatedly but so far, not acted upon. As Ignacio Packer, the Executive Director of ICVA has noted, what is needed is a concrete mechanism to allow these two Compacts to work together, and so far, there is none.
My proposal to you, in recognition of World Refugee Day, is to work to bring such a cooperative effort about by making it a high priority item for our next round of 2022-23 Committee activities.
Click here to download a copy of the NGO CoM statement in honor of World Refugee Day.
UNNM Releases IMRF Summary Reports and Endorsement of the Progress Declaration by the General Assembly
The United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM) extends its gratitude to the contributors and participants of the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF). It recently released a number of resources from the IMRF, which the NGO Committee on Migration would like to call your attention to, including:
- The summary report from the Multi-stakeholder Hearing, which directly preceded the IMRF. The summary can also be found on the UNNM website here. Access the full statements from all the event panelists here. In addition, the recording of the morning session can be watched here and the recording of the afternoon session can be found here.
- The summary report of the IMRF (plenary, round tables, and policy debate). The report is also available online.
- The Progress Declaration of the IMRF (contained in resolution A/76/L.58) formally endorsed by consensus of the General Assembly on 7 June 2022.
- For full and detailed coverage of the plenary meeting, please see the UN Web TV recording.
Statement on the occasion of the International Day of Family Remittances
In observance of the International Day of Family Remittances, the United Nations Network on Migration joins the international community in acknowledging the significant contribution that migrants and their families make towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through their remittances which, in 2021, are estimated to have amounted to USD 751 billion globally.
The Network also welcomes the Progress Declaration, which reviews progress in implementing the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, adopted at last month’s International Migration Review Forum. The Declaration reaffirms that remittances are a critical source of support for families and communities.
Click here to read the full statement on UNNM's website.
Welcoming a New NGO CoM Executive Committee
On 9 June 2022, the NGO Committee on Migration (NGO CoM) held an election to determine the composition of the Executive Committee for the coming 2022-2023 UN calendar year. We welcome the following individuals to the Executive Committee and new positions within it:
- Chair: Cecilie Kern, Mercy International Association
- Vice-Chair: Christine Mangale, Lutheran World Federation
- Secretary: Sanjana Ragudaran, Poverty Elimination and Community Education Foundation
- Treasurer: Nermin Ahmad, International Federation of Business and Professional Women
- Member at Large: Pamela Morgan, Zonta International
- Member at Large: Marciana Popescu, International Association of Schools of Social Work
- Member at Large: Emeka Iloegbu, World Federation of Public Health Associations
Please join us in expressing immense gratitude to the individuals who will be rotating off the Executive Committee. We thank Maria Pia Belloni, Joe Klock, and Michelle Bell for all of their important contributions to the Executive Committee and the work of the NGO CoM. The achievements of the NGO Committee on Migration would not be possible without the efforts of these dedicated individuals.
Post-IMRF Civil Society Recap
The first International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) was held from 17-20 May 2022, to discuss and share progress on the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).
The Civil Society Action Committee (AC) released a summary of the IMRF, including details and reflections about the civil society preparatory day, the multi-stakeholder meeting, the forum itself, and the resulting Progress Declaration.
Click here to access the AC's IMRF recap.
NGO Committee on Migration IMRF Spotlight: NGO Committee speaks to States at the UN General Assembly (UNGA)
1. Ms. Cecilie Kern, NGO Committee Vice-Chair and representative of Mercy International Association spoke in Roundtable 3 of the IMRF at the UNGA Wednesday, May 18, advocating for migrants’ access without fear to healthcare and other basic services, regularization of undocumented migrants, protection of labor rights and justice, mechanisms for migrant workers to recover unpaid wages from employers, and both a serious conversation—and structural action-- by States, civil society, Mayors and the private sector working together on inequalities, racism and xenophobia.
- Read the one-page statement here
- Click here to watch the video on UN- webTV (Cecilie's statement starts at 2:18:47)
2. Ms. Christine Mangale, Member of the Executive Committee of the NGO Committee and representative of the Lutheran World Federation and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, represented the NGO Committee in a statement submitted to the UNGA and shared directly with the 24 governments with whom the NGO Committee has met since March, plus another 76 by email, for reflection ahead of and within the Policy and General Debates of the IMRF at the UNGA Wednesday through Friday, May 18 - 20.
The statement presents 4 invitations for joint action by States, civil society and Mayors to implement what NGO Committee members believe are key provisions of the Global Compact for Migration, and related commitments in the Progress Declaration that UN Member States have negotiated in recent weeks and will adopt at the closing session of the IMRF Friday afternoon
- Read the one-page statement here
