UN Committee on Migrant Workers to review Honduras

GENEVA (24 August  2016) – The record of Honduras on protecting the rights of migrant workers is due to be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers (CMW) on 29 and 30 August in Geneva. Honduras is one of the 48 States Parties to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, and so is required to be reviewed regularly by the Committee. 

Among the possible issues for discussion between the CMW and a delegation from the Honduran Government are:

·    How Honduras’s bilateral and multilateral agreements protect migrant workers’ rights, particularly regarding detention, repatriation, expulsion and family reunification;
·    Grounds for preventing migrants from entering Honduras;
·    Exploitation of migrant workers, especially women, in irregular situations including those working in agriculture, the textile industry, mining, and domestic service;
·    Disappearance of Honduran migrants in transit, including measures to prevent and investigate cases, and ensuring access to justice and support for families when searching for the disappeared and identifying bodies;
·    Measures taken to investigate allegations of harassment, corruption and abuse of authority by law enforcement officials, including as relating to trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants;
·    Protection of child migrants, particularly unaccompanied minors, from violence and exploitation and addressing root causes of irregular migration;
·    Steps to improve the situation of frontier workers, including on El Salvador-Honduras border.

The discussions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva on 29 August from 15:00-18:00 (7:00-10:00 in Tegucigalpa) and on 30 August from 10:00-13:00 (2:00-5:00 in Tegucigalpa), and will be webcast live at http://webtv.un.org/. The Committee will also be briefed by representatives of NGOs, UN bodies and specialised agencies. More information about the review here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1046&Lang=en

The Committee, which is also reviewing Niger, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka, will publish its findings at the above link on Tuesday 13 September.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell - +41 22 917 9466 / ethrossell@ohchr.org

Background

CMW members are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. More information on the Committee:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CMW/Pages/CMWIndex.aspx

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