Background Release

SECOND SESSION OF COMMITTEE ON PROTECTION OF RIGHTS

 

OF MIGRANTS TO MEET IN GENEVA FROM 25 TO 29 APRIL

Committee to Discuss Methods of Work, Adopt Provisional

Guidelines for Submission of States Parties’ Initial Reports

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 21 April (UN Information Service) -- The second session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families will be held at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, from 25 to 29 April 2005.

At the first meeting, which will start at 10 a.m. on Monday, 25 April, the Committee will adopt its agenda.  It will adopt formally the provisional guidelines regarding the form and contents of initial reports to be submitted by States parties under article 73 of the Convention, on which it agreed at an informal meeting in October 2004.  The Committee will also consider further its rules of procedure and formally adopt an amendment agreed upon at the informal meeting.  It will also discuss its methods of work in considering States parties’ reports.

On Tuesday, 26 April, in the afternoon, the Committee will hold a meeting with States parties in order to discuss the modalities of reporting.  It will also hold meetings with representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations on Wednesday, 27 April.

More than 150 million migrants, including migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers, permanent immigrants and others, live and work in a country other than that of their birth or citizenship.  They represent 2 per cent of the world's population.  Persons who qualify as migrant workers under the provisions of the Convention are entitled to enjoy their human rights regardless of their legal status.

The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families entered into force on 1 July 2003.  The Convention seeks to play a role in preventing and eliminating the exploitation of migrant workers throughout the entire migration process.  It provides a set of binding international standards to address the treatment, welfare and human rights of both documented and undocumented migrants, as well as the obligations and responsibilities on the part of sending and receiving States.  To date, 28 States have ratified the treaty.

The Committee was created to monitor how States parties to the Convention abide by their obligations under the treaty.  It consists of 10 Experts.  States parties accept the obligation to report to the Committee on the steps they have taken to implement the Convention within a year of its entry into force for the State concerned, and thereafter every five years. 

The Convention provides that the Committee shall normally meet annually.  In 2005, however, the Committee will meet twice for one week, in April and December.

International Convention on Protection of Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

The Convention is applicable to all migrant workers and members of their families without distinction of any kind such as sex, race, colour, language, religion or conviction, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, nationality, age, economic position, property, marital status, birth or other status.  It applies during the entire migration process of migrant workers and members of their families, which comprises preparation for migration, departure, transit and the entire period of stay and remunerated activity in the State of employment, as well as return to the State of origin or the State of habitual residence.

Listed among their human rights, the Convention states that migrant workers and members of their families shall be free to leave any State, including their State of origin; migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right at any time to enter and remain in their State of origin; the right to life of migrant workers and members of their families shall be protected by law; no migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; no migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be held in slavery or servitude; and no migrant worker or member of his or her family shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.  The Convention also prohibits collective expulsion of migrant workers and members of their families.  It further establishes that migrant workers enjoy treatment not less favourable than that which applies to nationals of the State of employment in respect of remuneration and other conditions of work and terms of employment.  Documented or regular migrant workers, moreover, enjoy the right to form associations and trade unions, as well as equality of treatment with the nationals of the State in relation to access to educational, social and health services.

The Convention also imposes a series of obligations on States parties in the interest of promoting "sound, equitable, humane and lawful conditions" for the international migration of workers and members of their families.  These requirements include the establishment of policies on migration; the exchange of information with other States parties; the provision of information to employers, workers and their organizations on policies, laws and regulations; and assistance to migrant workers and their families.

Implementation of Convention

The Convention is monitored by the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, consisting of 10 experts serving in their personal capacity.  The membership of the Committee will rise from 10 to 14 experts when 41 ratifications have been registered.

States parties accept the obligation to report on the steps they have taken to implement the Convention within a year of its entry into force for the State concerned, and thereafter every five years.  Under the treaty, a State party may recognize the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals within that State's jurisdiction who claim that their rights under the Convention have been violated.  If the Committee is satisfied that the matter has not been, and is not being, examined in another international context, and that all domestic remedies have been exhausted, it may call for explanations, and express its views.

Other International Mechanisms for Protection of Migrants

The Convention reinforces and completes a series of other measures already taken by the United Nations to ensure adequate protection of all migrant workers and their families.  The International Labour Organization (ILO) has been in the forefront of efforts to secure and maintain a fair deal for migrant workers and their families since the 1920s.  Also, a Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights has been looking, since 1999, at ways and means to overcome obstacles to the full and effective protection of the human rights of migrants, including difficulties for the return of those who are "undocumented".

States Parties to Convention

The Convention was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by the General Assembly in December 1990.  To date, it has been ratified or acceded to by the following 28 States:  Azerbaijan, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor Leste, Turkey, Uganda and Uruguay.

Members of Committee

The members of the Committee are:  Francisco Alba (Mexico); Francisco Carrion Mena (Ecuador); Ana Elizabeth Cubias Medina (El Salvador); Ana Maria Dieguez (Guatemala); Ahmed Hassan El-Borai (Egypt); Abdelhamid El Jamari (Morocco); Arthur Shatto Gakwandi (Uganda); Prasad Kariyawasam (Sri Lanka); Jose Serrano Brillantes (Philippines); and Azad Taghizade (Azerbaijan).

Mr. Kariyawasam is the Chairperson.  The Vice-Chairpersons are Mr. Brillantes, Ms. Dieguez and Mr. El-Borai.  The Rapporteur is Mr. Alba.

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