Special Rapporteur Tells Human Rights Council that $669 Billion in Remittances from Migrants in 2023 Exceeded Foreign Investment and Official Development Assistance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The Human Rights Council this afternoon began an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. It also concluded an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said the promotion and protection of the human rights of migrants was crucial, at a time when the political discourse around migration had taken a negative, inflammatory and divisive turn. Migrants were rights holders, and their rights should be fully respected and protected regardless of the contributions that they made to society. Remittances from migrants played a vital role in the economies of low- and middle-income countries, reaching $669 billion in 2023, which exceeded foreign direct investment and outstripped official development assistance.

Mr. Madi said that once viewed as a positive economic and social force, migrants were now increasingly viewed as a security threat that needed to be controlled. His report concluded that supporting an evidence-based narrative on migration was crucial for upholding migrants’ rights and ensuring that their contributions were acknowledged and valued.

In the discussion on migrants, some speakers, among other things, said that they shared the Special Rapporteur’s concerns regarding the increase in far-right political discourse and xenophobic narratives concerning migrants, particularly on social media. Political discourse around migration had been used to disseminate disinformation and promote hate speech and intolerance and xenophobia. Such narratives needed to be countered with evidence-based information. Some speakers said migration was a human right that should not be criminalised. One speaker said that the achievements of migrants should not be exaggerated. Interaction between migrants and host societies should be a two-way street and the rights of migrants should be balanced with the rights of nationals.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Council concluded the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, which began this morning. A summary can be viewed here.

In closing remarks, Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said many judges and lawyers were facing serious human rights violations, including violence, detention and killings, simply for doing their job. She would continue to speak with targeted individuals, collect best practices for promoting the independence of the judiciary, and report her findings back to the Council.

In the continuing discussion on the independence of judges and lawyers, some speakers, among other things, welcomed the report of the Special Rapporteur on ways to strengthen the protection of the independence of judicial systems in light of contemporary challenges, and thanked her for her efforts to protect the independence of judges and lawyers. Many speakers recognised the critical role that legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and community justice workers, played in safeguarding justice and fairness. Governments were urged to take concrete measures to ensure that all lawyers could perform their professional functions without intimidation or improper interference. Several speakers expressed their concern at the recent attacks, threats, and intimidation against the International Criminal Court, including sanctions against its officials.

Speaking in the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers were Cameroon, Cuba, Switzerland, Ghana, Afghanistan, Libya, Venezuela, South Africa, Sudan, Vanuatu, Malawi, Bolivia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Botswana, India, Honduras and Tunisia.

Also speaking was the Law Council of Australia, as well as Arab European Forum for Dialogue and Human Rights, No Peace Without Justice, International Commission of Jurists, Centre for Justice and International Law, International Bar Association, Freedom Now, Right Livelihood Award Foundation, Rawsam Human Development Centre, and Association pour l'Intégration et le Développement Durable au Burundi.

Speaking in the discussion on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants were Poland on behalf of a group of countries, Mexico on behalf of a group of countries, European Union, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Gambia on behalf of a Group of African States, Costa Rica on behalf of a group of countries, Ecuador, United Nations Women, Türkiye, Portugal, Sri Lanka, United Nations Children’s Fund, Armenia, Morocco, Egypt, Luxembourg, Indonesia, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Ethiopia, France, United States, Algeria, Spain, Nigeria, Iraq, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Russian Federation, Croatia, Sovereign Order of Malta, Malaysia, Belarus, Côte d'Ivoire, China, Tunisia, Albania, Brazil, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Cuba, Paraguay, Ghana, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Libya, Kenya, Venezuela, Mali, Sudan, Thailand, Niger, Malawi, Bolivia, Azerbaijan, India, Namibia, Lebanon, Rwanda, Belize, Bangladesh and Honduras.

Speaking in right of reply were Armenia, Israel, Tunisia, Lithuania and Azerbaijan.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s fifty-sixth regular session can be found here.

The Council will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 25 June, to conclude the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, to be followed by an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The Council will then hold an interactive dialogue with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers

The interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers started in the previous meeting and a summary can be found here.

Intermediate Remarks

MARGARET SATTERTHWAITE, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, said she valued the comments and questions posed by States. A key threat to judges and lawyers was the targeting of these groups, including on social media. Threats emanated from executive powers talking about judges and official decisions made by them online. She had written to governments about such intimidation and harassment of judges by authorities. Attacks by authorities online could lead to physical attacks against them by members of the public.

Ms. Satterthwaite said she was also concerned by the killing of judges and lawyers, including the prominent case in Eswatini of the killing of human rights defender and lawyer Thulani Maseko, which needed to be investigated. She also expressed concern about the detainment of judges and lawyers. In recent weeks, officials in the United States and Israel had made inflammatory statements about members of the International Criminal Court. Such threats violated international human rights norms. All States needed to respect the judicial independence of the International Criminal Court. Its work was more important than ever. Ms. Satterthwaite also condemned the destruction of judicial infrastructure in Gaza.

The Special Rapporteur said she had written to the Government of Türkiye regarding actions that could amount to interference of the judiciary related to a court case on an alleged terrorism crime. Judges had the right to due process and violating those rights ran counter to international norms. Judges’ right to freedom of expression needed to be protected. Judges needed to follow a transparent legal framework. She welcomed that Guatemala had appointed magistrates to the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal until October 2024. She expressed hope that successors to these magistrates would be appointed for future periods. She also expressed concern that in Tunisia, the Court of Appeals had been paralysed for six months, and that there had been efforts to remove members of the National Judicial Councils without proper process.

Ms. Satterthwaite said she continued to seek visits of countries across the world. She was interested in collecting good practices to share with the Council. She was organising an upcoming visit to Chile. She had been unable to conduct a planned visit to the Republic of Korea due to the United Nations’ liquidity crisis, but she hoped that she could conduct this visit soon. She expressed hope that Member States of the General Assembly would endorse the proposal to declare 11 January as the “Day of Judicial Independence”.

Discussion

In the continuing discussion, some speakers, among other things, welcomed the report of the Special Rapporteur on ways to strengthen the protection of the independence of judicial systems in light of contemporary challenges, and thanked her for her efforts to protect the independence of judges and lawyers. Her report recognised the vital role of legal professionals in safeguarding the rule of law and democracy.

Many speakers agreed with the Special Rapporteur on her recommendations, including those to strengthen the administration of justice in Member States by ensuring the personal safety of judges and their families, as well as transparent, fair and impartial processes for decisions on the appointment and promotion of judges and prosecutors.

Speakers also echoed the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur that incidents of violence against judges and prosecutors should be seriously investigated to avoid their recurrence. Many speakers recognised the critical role that legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and community justice workers, played in safeguarding justice and fairness.

Respecting the rule of law was a prerequisite for protecting human rights and democracy. Some speakers spoke about the situation in their own countries which strove to ensure the independence of the judiciary, including through guaranteeing the independence of judges within the constitution; comprehensive legislative reform which covered the courts; the separation of powers; electronic filing systems in the courts; multilayered processes in the appointment of judges; and prioritising democracy within foreign policy, among other measures.

A number of speakers underlined the importance of the role played by prosecutors in protecting and promoting human rights by fighting impunity and corruption and objected to the use of violence, threats of violence, coercion or inappropriate interference against them. Governments were urged to take concrete measures to ensure that all lawyers could perform their professional functions without intimidation or improper interference.

One speaker noted that controls in the judiciary were essential for any democracy to function; otherwise, it could be used for an autocratic power. True democratic governance required robust legal frameworks, the rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary.

There were legalistic autocrats in countries throughout the world who dismantled the rule of law through dismantling the judiciary. Some speakers spoke about certain situations where the rule of law had been dismantled, including countries which restricted the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, and undermined the right to a fair trial. Some speakers asked the Special Rapporteur not to allow certain actors to undermine her work and abuse her platform.

Several speakers expressed their concern at the recent attacks, threats, and intimidation against the International Criminal Court, including sanctions against its officials. The International Criminal Court was the world's first and only permanent international criminal court, a key component for international peace and security. These threats obstructed the course of justice, jeopardising victims’ access to justice and redress.

Concluding Remarks

MARGARET SATTERTHWAITE, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, in closing remarks, said very serious and important human rights matters had been discussed in the dialogue. Many judges and lawyers were facing serious human rights violations, including violence, detention and killings, simply for doing their job. Ms. Satterthwaite said she would continue to speak with targeted individuals, collect best practices for promoting the independence of the judiciary, and report her findings back to the Council.

Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

Report

The Council has before it the report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on revisiting migrants’ contributions to societies with a human rights-based approach: an analysis on the facilitating and hindering factorsA/HRC/56/54

Presentation of Report

GEHAD MADI, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said it was a pleasure to address the Council for the first time as the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. The promotion and protection of the human rights of migrants was crucial, at a time when the political discourse around migration had taken a negative, inflammatory and divisive turn.

Many success stories in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries featured migrants who overcame adversity, spurred entrepreneurship and job creation, and contributed to shaping prosperous, high-income countries. Today, strict immigration criteria would prevent many such individuals from migrating regularly. The hostile, dehumanising and criminalising narratives now surrounding migrants demonstrated a lack of understanding. Against this background, Mr. Madi said his first report to the Council focused on revisiting migrants’ contributions to societies with a human rights-based approach to provide an analysis on the facilitating and hindering factors.

Migrants were rights holders, and their rights should be fully respected and protected, regardless of the contributions that they made to society. Mr. Madi called on Member States and stakeholders to refocus attention on migrants’ contributions and evaluate them with a comprehensive framework that encompassed sociocultural enrichment, civic-political engagement, and economic benefits. Migrants drove sociocultural growth in their home countries through transferring “social remittances”, ideas, values and practices. They contributed to the economy, with higher labour force participation rates than non-migrants, and formed a key portion of the workforce, at 4.9 per cent in 2019 and over 41 per cent in Arab States.

Migrants could contribute to a country’s labour market flexibility, often filling critical labour shortages, from highly skilled positions in sectors such as technology and health care, to essential roles in agriculture and the service industries. Remittances from migrants played a vital role in the economies of low- and middle-income countries, reaching $669 billion in 2023, which exceeded foreign direct investment and outstripped official development assistance.

Once viewed as a positive economic and social force, migrants were now increasingly viewed as a security threat that needed be controlled. Concurrently, many countries had adopted selective immigration policies, with a divisive view of “desirable” and “undesirable” migrants, and creating gross inequalities in terms of access to regular migration. People in lower-income countries, in particular African countries, were most severely restricted in their access to the benefits of migration and their ability to contribute as migrants around the world. This exacerbated global inequalities.

Migrants frequently encountered discrimination and xenophobia in both transit and destination countries, curtailing their job prospects, access to services and social inclusion. Migrants in irregular situations often found that their human rights were not recognised, affecting their safety, dignity and ability to participate in and contribute to society.

The report concluded that supporting an evidence-based narrative on migration was crucial for upholding migrants’ rights and ensuring that their contributions were acknowledged and valued. Mr. Madi invited States to reflect on how to overcome obstacles which hindered the realisation of migrants’ contributions in communities of origin, transit, and destination; how to foster migrants’ sociocultural, civic-political, and economic contributions in societies of origin, transit, and destination; and how to promote an evidence-based narrative about migration, among others. Since he took office, he had expressed interest to a number of States for an official visit and thanked Kuwait and Canada for their willingness to receive his mandate.

Discussion

In the ensuing dialogue, speakers, among other things, welcomed the Special Rapporteur’s first report to the Council. Many speakers said that they shared the Special Rapporteur’s concerns regarding the increase in far-right political discourse and xenophobic narratives concerning migrants, particularly on social media. Political discourse around migration had been used to disseminate disinformation and promote hate speech and intolerance and xenophobia. Such narratives needed to be countered with evidence-based information. There was no relation between migration and criminality. Speakers affirmed the responsibility of States to uphold the rights of migrants and combat xenophobia and disinformation.

Some speakers said migration was a human right that should not be criminalised. States needed to communicate the benefits that migrants provided to societies. Migration had enriched cultures and had helped to encourage innovation, economic growth and development. International remittances surpassed official development assistance in boosting development in developing nations for the first time this year. Migrants also helped to build stronger communities and workforces by contributing their skills and experience. Well-managed migration fostered social cohesion.

All States needed to uphold the principle of non-refoulement. One speaker said that developed countries should provide more support to developing countries to address migration issues and expressed concern about the treatment of migrants in some developed countries.

One speaker said migrant women often faced difficulties in obtaining work permits, were at heightened risk of abuse, and were often denied social protection. Women’s right to migrate should not be limited. The rights of migrant women to work permits, social protection and support needed to be upheld.

Another speaker said migrant children were at the forefront of calls for increased protection of migrants’ rights. Children on the move needed to be protected so that they could contribute to their host communities. All relevant stakeholders needed to recognise the harm caused by inflammatory narratives regarding migrant children and combat these. They also needed to exert efforts to protect the rights of children.

In agriculture, one speaker said, migrants often worked informally or with tight visas. They had limited access to social protection and often lived in inadequate housing. They were at an increased risk of exploitation and sexual abuse, particularly women. Polices and measures were needed to protect the rights of migrant workers in the agricultural sector and promote safe and regular migration pathways for rural workers.

Some speakers spoke of national efforts to combat trafficking in persons. Some said they provided shelter, basic services and social security for migrants and had reformed the regulation system concerning migration. Some speakers said they protected migrants’ employment rights and promoted formal employment opportunities for migrants; they also promoted migrants’ integration into society.

Some speakers called on all States to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and to implement the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

One speaker said that the achievements of migrants should not be exaggerated. Interaction between migrants and host societies should be a two-way street and the rights of migrants should be balanced with the rights of nationals. The speaker called on the Special Rapporteur to consider this in future reports.

There was a concerning pushback against migrants at borders in some countries, some speakers said. Pushbacks of migrants needed to end.

Speakers asked about how States could cooperate to ensure the protection of migrants, including in border areas; how States could cooperate to combat xenophobia and stigmatisation of migrants; how States could combat disinformation and discrimination of migrants on social media; how all could better understand the largely positive impacts of migrants on society; and how States could ensure successful strategies and public policies for developing positive narratives regarding migrants.

Intermediate Remarks

GEHAD MADI, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said his mandate firmly opposed and condemned the use of migrants as a political tool. The rights of migrants should be respected and protected by all States. Government measures should not adversely affect the human rights of migrants. Anti-discrimination legislation, including legislation which penalised hate crimes, was crucial for reducing intolerance against migrants and holding perpetrators accountable. Supporting an evidence-based narrative on migration was crucial for upholding the rights of migrants.

Social media could serve as a powerful platform amplifying migrants’ contributions and their stories. The presence of migrants in one country could bring opportunities depending on how the countries of transit treated them, and how open the society was to receive them; it could be a win-win situation in this respect. Mr. Madi said he had received information that campaigns funded by some Governments were focused on communicating migrants’ contributions and their inspiring stories. These testimonies were vital campaigns to help audiences connect and empathise with affected people. Governments should consider directing a fraction of security budgets towards these kinds of campaigns which fostered social cohesion and respect.

Discussion

Continuing the dialogue, some speakers, among other things, said migrants were rights holders, regardless of their migratory status. Several speakers noted the positive contributions that migrants made to both their home countries and host countries. Migration promoted peace, prosperity and cultural enrichment. Remittances from migrants were a potential lifeline for developing countries.

There was a lack of recognition of the contributions made by migrants to their communities in many States, speakers said. Rising misinformation and disinformation about migrants distorted public perceptions about them and put them at high risk of abuse. It was concerning that there had been a major increase in attacks by the extreme right on migrants in recent years. The more migration increased, the more migrants’ rights were violated, one speaker observed. Harmful narratives about migrants needed to be countered with evidence- and human rights-based discourse. States needed to harmonise policies regarding migration, adopt a human rights-based approach to managing migration, and guarantee safe migration pathways and the dignity of migrants. One speaker called on Member States to address the drivers of migration.

Some speakers presented national efforts to promote migrants’ access to justice, social security, healthcare and education; adopt humane policies on migration; encourage the integration of migrants within host communities; fight xenophobic narratives concerning migrants; implement the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration; promote regular migration; organise cultural events to promote migrants’ rights; encourage diaspora to return to their homelands and enable the representation of the diaspora in political bodies; develop laws countering trafficking in persons; encourage the participation of migrants in the development of policies affecting them; and develop digital tools to manage migration and connect foreign employers to employment agencies.

The situation of refugees and asylum seekers in some countries was particularly concerning, one speaker said. Upholding the principle of non-refoulement and speeding up asylum procedures remained essential. Some speakers presented efforts to implement pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum, provide food, water and shelter to refugees and asylum seekers, and assist their resettlement. International donors needed to provide increased support to developing countries hosting large populations of refugees.

Some speakers said that unilateral coercive measures were encouraging irregular migration. One speaker called on the Special Rapporteur to focus on irregular migration and the burden that irregular migrants placed on host communities in a future report.

Some speakers asked about examples of policies to uphold the rights of migrants; and measures that host countries could take to protect migrants from abuse.

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