Most hidden UN Instrument entering into force soon!

Statement by the

Steering Committee for the Global Campaign for Ratification of the

UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers

and Members of Their Families

Geneva, 11 December 2002

On the occasion of  International Human Rights Day, the National Parliament of Timor-Leste (East Timor) decided to accede to the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Member of Their Families. This  will allow the entry into force of the Convention early next year.

It is a long awaited hard won success for all migrants and for all those who have been struggling for more respect for the human rights of documented and undocumented migrant workers and their families, including the Global Campaign for Ratification of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families .

We congratulate Timor-Leste and all State Parties that took the lead in confirming their commitment to bring their national laws into compliance with this landmark human rights instrument. At the same time, we take the opportunity to invite all other governments, especially the 15 European Union Member States in view of the 2004 deadline for harmonisation of their immigration and refugee policies, to promptly give serious consideration to becoming state party to this major human rights standard.

With the Convention coming into force soon, the international community will be challenged to look at migration from a human rights perspective and not exclusively as an economic, political and national security issue.

With rising xenophobia and attacks on foreigners, this Convention extends the ever so much needed protection to migrant workers and their families world-wide. It provides a set of binding international standards to address the treatment, welfare and human rights of both documented and undocumented migrants and the obligations and responsibilities on the part of the sending and receiving States. It extends the concept of “equality of treatment” between nationals and non-nationals, between women and men migrant workers and between documented and undocumented workers. Overall, the Convention seeks to play a role in preventing and eliminating the exploitation of all migrant workers and members of their families throughout the entire migration process. In particular, it seeks to put an end to the illegal or clandestine recruitment and trafficking of migrant workers and to discourage the employment of migrant workers in an irregular or undocumented situation. Finally, the Convention establishes mechanisms for its implementation which provide new opportunities for increased participation from the global community to protect the rights of migrants.

The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families on 18 December 1990. In 1994, at the UN Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, a small group of non-governmental organisations and migration experts from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East laid the foundations for the Global Campaign. Four years later, the Steering Committee, a unique alliance of intergovernmental agencies and leading international church, labour, human rights, migrants and women’s organisations, was created. It provides a more focused flow among the different groups and improves cooperation for the global effort to bring the Convention into force.

For further information, please contact the Steering Committee Member Organisations (*) and visit our web site at http://www.migrantsrights.org. It includes a copy of the Global Campaign Handbook ‘Achieving Dignity’. The Handbook can also obtained by contacting the Secretariat of the Steering Committee at migrantwatch@vtx.ch .

* contact list Steering Committee Members:

http://www.migrantsrights.org/Cont_camp_steer_engl.htm