Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

Background

General comment No. 5 (2021) on migrants’ rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention aims to provide guidance to States on fulfilling their obligations under the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (the Convention) in relation to the right to liberty and protection against arbitrary detention of migrant workers and members of their families. The general comment also seeks to provide guidance to States on implementing the Global Compact for Migration, and to other stakeholders on implementing initiatives to promote and protect human rights and to monitor compliance thereof.

Read the draft General comment No. 5 (2021) on migrants’ rights to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention: English | Français | Español

It is the result of a participatory and inclusive process, which involved soliciting input and comments from multiple stakeholders, including from international human rights mechanisms. It has been developed and adopted out of deep concern about the rising trend towards the criminalization of migration and the increasingly frequent use of detention of migrants across several regions of the world.

On 7 October 2021, the Committee held a panel discussion with former immigration detainees; presented the key concerns, main findings and recommendations of the general comment No. 5; and a had a panel discussion with States representatives, national human rights institutions, civil society and international academia experts.

The Committee would like to thank all stakeholders for their inputs and initial submissions in 2019, which assisted the Committee in the preparation of the draft general comment. The complete list of submissions and their authors can be found below.