The “Forgotten” Human Rights Treaty: Calling for a Better Implementation of the Migrant Workers Convention

The “Forgotten” Human Rights Treaty: Calling for a Better Implementation of the Migrant Workers Convention
Emer Groarke spoke about the Migrant Workers Convention during an event on migrant rights. Photo: UNHCHR

During a recent United Nations event on migrant rights held in Geneva, ICMC strongly reiterated its call for a wider ratification and better implementation of the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (the “Migrant Workers Convention”).

Emer Groarke, Advocacy and Communication Officer at the ICMC-coordinated Migration and Development (MADE) Network, took the floor during a side event on migrants co-organized by the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers and the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh, the latter currently holding the Chair of the Global Forum of Migration and Development (GFMD). During her intervention, Groarke highlighted the crucial need to offer internationally-recognized protection standards to all migrant workers worldwide, as they constitute a vulnerable group which is easily subject to abuse and exploitation.

Entered into force in 2003, the Migrant Workers Convention sets forth the rights of all those engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which they are not a national, as well as of their closest relatives. The Convention, however, today counts only 48 State parties. Even more troublingly, only two of these countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania – are located within the European continent: in fact, not one of the wealthy Western countries has ratified the Convention to date. “In my Master’s degree on Human Rights, we were surprised to learn that one of the ten core human rights treaties remained largely unratified”, Groarke remembered during her presentation. “We were shocked and appalled”.

Throughout the years, ICMC has been particularly active in advocating for further adhesion to the Convention’s protection standards. In 2006, a handy “toolkit” on the Convention was written by Mariette Grange, former Advocacy Officer at ICMC and renowned researcher on human rights and migration. In 2010, ICMC led the writing of the Committee on Migrant Workers’ first General Comment on the treaty. Having coordinated civil society’s activities of the GFMD since 2008, ICMC – together with other civil society partners – has been relentlessly calling, over the years, for the ratification and implementation of the Convention by an increased number of States.

“There is still a gap there – one that needs to be filled”, Groarke concluded. “I would just like to finish by reiterating, that there is a lot of civil society actors, at all levels, who are determined to persevere until this Convention takes its rightful place alongside the other widely ratified core human rights treaties”.

Further information on the event is available on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Topics
:

WHAT WE DO

ICMC provides assistance and protection to vulnerable people on the move and advocates for sustainable solutions for refugees and migrants.