Programmes and Operations

Core Activities

Technical cooperation with governments

The need

One of the most worrying trends is the growing number of states violating Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which states that, 'No contracting state shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened...' This trend emphasizes the growing need for national legal systems to integrate international standards, and for increased monitoring of the implementation of these laws and systems.

Introduction

At the international level, refugees are afforded protection under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

Refugee protection is further expanded in regional agreements such as the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees and the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa.
Separately, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement serve as an international standard in providing assistance and protection to internally displaced persons (IDPs).

For the human rights of migrants however, apart from the specialized International Labour Organisation conventions, no comprehensive international human rights treaty could be drawn upon until the end of the 1990's.

Where migration involves the crossing of national borders, internationally recognized tools are necessary to address migration issues at the level of governments and to hold them accountable for the safety and well-being of migrants in their territories, in transit as well as destination countries. Two complementary human rights tools were developed to address these issues: the 1990 International Convention for Migrant Workers (CMW) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, created in 1999.

While some of these conventions, guidelines and tools are better known and respected than others, they are each particular in scope and to varying degrees pose practical and legal difficulties in application, both at a national and international level. Inter-governmental bodies, individual states and non-governmental organisations actively examine, at times conflict, and increasingly collaborate in efforts to make the rights of migrant people understood and respected. ICMC is deeply committed and involved in that collaboration.