Committee on Rights of Migrant Workers to hold twelfth session in Geneva from 26 to 30 April

Committee on Rights of Migrant Workers CMW/10/1
BACKGROUND RELEASE

22 April 2010

The twelfth 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 26 to 30 April 2010. During its one-week session, the Committee will review efforts by Algeria to implement its obligations under the Convention and adopt recommendations thereon.

The session is an important landmark. It is the first to time the committee meets since the membership was expanded from 10 to 14 following the entry into force of the Convention for the forty-first State party last year. It is also the first session of the Committee in 2010, the year which will mark the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (the Convention).

At its first meeting, which will start at 10 a.m. on Monday, 26 April, the Committee will hear an update on developments of relevance to the Committee since its last meeting by a representative of the Secretary-General. It will then swear in new members and elect a Bureau, before adopting its agenda for the session. Also on Monday morning, the Committee will hear from national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations regarding the report of Algeria.

On Monday afternoon and the morning of Tuesday, 27 April, the Committee will examine the initial report of Algeria under the Convention (CMW/C/DZA/1), holding an interactive dialogue with a delegation from that country.

During Wednesday, 28 April, and Thursday, 29 April, the Committee will meet in private to hold a first reading of a draft general comment on migrant domestic workers and to consider the concluding observations and lists of issues for the countries under review.

On the morning of Friday, 30 April, the Committee will discuss activities to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Convention (adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 1990) and report in public on progress made in its deliberations on the general comment, among other subjects.

Friday afternoon, the Committee will adopt its annual report and make public its concluding observations on the report of Algeria, before officially closing its twelfth session.

For further information, including links to the reports to be considered at this session and the programme of work, please see the Committee’s Web page for its twelfth session.

Background

More than 190 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 almost 3 per cent of the world's population.

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 as well as ensuring the protection of their human rights 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, as well as States of transit. To date, 42 States have ratified the treaty.

The Committee of 14 Experts was created to monitor how States parties to the Convention abide by their obligations under the treaty. States parties accept the obligation to report to the Committee on the steps they have taken to implement the Convention. States must report initially within a year of its entry into force for the State concerned, and thereafter every five years. So far, the Committee has examined the initial reports of 12 States parties: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Mali, Mexico, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Syria. Apart from the report of Algeria, which is being reviewed at the presented session, the initial reports of another five States parties – Albania, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala and Senegal – and two periodic reports – Ecuador and Mexico – are awaiting examination by the Committee.

The International Convention on the Protection of the 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 shall 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 the 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. Following the entry into force of the Convention for the forty-first State party in 2009, the membership has increased to 14 as of 1 January 2010.

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 also 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. On 18 September 2007, Guatemala became the first State party to recognize the Committee’s competence in this respect. Since then, Mexico has done the same.

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 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 (now the Human Rights Council) 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 in an “irregular” or "undocumented" situation.

States Parties to the 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 42 States: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Uganda and Uruguay.

Members of the Committee

The members of the Committee are Francisco Alba (Mexico); José S. Brillantes (Philippines); Francisco Carrion Mena (Ecuador); Ana Elizabeth Cubías Medina (El Salvador); Fatoumata Abdourhamana Dicko (Mali); Ahmed Hassan El-Borai (Egypt); Abdelhamid El Jamri (Morocco); Miguel Ángel Ibarra Gonzalez (Guatemala); Prasad Kariyawasam (Sri Lanka); Andrea Miller-Stennett (Jamaica); Myriam Poussi Konsimbo (Burkina Faso); Mehmet Sevim (Turkey); Azad Taghizadet (Azerbaijan); and Ahmadou Tall (Senegal).

Abdelhamid El Jamri, the Committee Chairperson, will open the first meeting of the twelfth session, following which a new Bureau, including a Chairperson, three Vice Chairpersons and a Committee Rapporteur will be elected from among Committee members.

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