FIRST SESSION OF COMMITTEE ON PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS TO MEET IN GENEVA FROM 1 TO 5 MARCH

Committee to Elect Bureau, Establish its Rules of Procedure, and Draw
Up General Guidelines on the Reports to be Submitted by States Parties


27 February 2004



The first session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families will be held in Geneva from 1 to 5 March 2004.

At the first meeting, which will start at 10 a.m. on Monday, 1 March, the Committee will elect a Chairperson, Vice Chairpersons and its Rapporteur before adopting its agenda. Its members will then establish its rules of procedure.

More than 150 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 2 percent of the world's population. Persons who qualify as migrant workers under the provisions of the Convention are entitled to enjoy their human rights regardless of their legal status.

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 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. To date, 25 States have ratified the treaty.

The Committee was created to monitor how States parties to the Convention abide by their obligations under the treaty. It consists of 10 Experts. States parties accept the obligation to report to the Committee 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 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.
During its first session, the Committee may wish to provide guidance to State parties on the form and contents of reports to be submitted by States parties to the Convention. It may also wish to establish the modalities for its cooperation with the specialized agencies, organs and bodies of the United Nations, intergovernmental organizations and other concerned bodies on matters dealt with in the Convention.

The Convention provides that the Committee shall normally meet annually.

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 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 will be 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. The membership of the Committee will rise from 10 to 14 experts when 41 ratifications have been registered.

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 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. If the Committee is satisfied that the matter has not been, and is not being, examined in another international context, and that all domestic remedies have been exhausted, it may call for explanations, and express its views.

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 (ILO) 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 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 "undocumented".

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 twenty-five States: Azerbaijan, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor Leste, Uganda and Uruguay.

Members of the Committee

The members of the Committee are Francisco Alba (Mexico); Francisco Carrion Mena (Ecuador); Ana Elizabeth Cubias Medina (El Salvador); Ana Maria Dieguez (Guatemala); Ahmed Hassan El-Borai (Egypt); Abdelhamid El Jamari (Morocco); Arthur Shatto Gakwandi (Uganda); Prasad Kariyawasam (Sri Lanka); Jose Serrano Brillantes (Philippines); and Azad Taghizade (Azerbaijan).