UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS OF MIGRANTS TO VISIT REPUBLIC OF KOREA AND INDONESIA

1 December 2006

The Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Prof. Jorge Bustamante, will visit the Republic of Korea from 4 to 12 December and Indonesia from 12 to 21 December 2006.

In both countries the Special Rapporteur will discuss the steps taken by authorities to ensure the integration of migrant communities, especially with regard to particularly vulnerable groups such as women, children and those with a precarious legal status.

In the Republic of Korea the Special Rapporteur will meet with senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government Administration and Home Affairs, Labor, and Gender Equality, as well as with the president of the National Human Rights Commission.
During his visit to Indonesia the Special Rapporteur will hold meetings with, among other senior officials, the country’s Vice President, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Social Affairs, the Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare, the Minister for Law and Human Rights and the Minister for Manpower and Transmigration, as well as with representatives of regional governments. Mr. Bustamante will begin his official mission in Jakarta on 12 December and then visit the Provinces of West Kalimantan and Riau Islands.

Prof. Bustamante will also hold meetings with Parliamentarians, officials of United Nations agencies, representatives of non-governmental organizations and migrants residing in both countries.

The Special Rapporteur will report on his findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Prof. Jorge Bustamante was appointed Special Rapporteur in August 2005. This mandate was established in 1999 to “examine ways and means to overcome the obstacles existing to the full and effective protection of the human rights of migrants, including obstacles and difficulties for the return of migrants who are undocumented or in an irregular situation”.

For further information regarding the visit of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, please contact the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.ohchr.org/

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For use of the information media; not an official record