保护移徙工人委员会召开第十九届会议（部分翻译）

2013年9月9日

与非政府组织和国家人权代表举行了一次关于布基纳法索和摩洛哥的非正式会议

保护所有移徙工人及其家庭成员权利委员会今天上午召开了第十九届会议，听取了人权事务副高级专员弗拉维亚•潘谢里的讲话，并通过了议程和工作方案。委员会还与非政府组织和国家人权代表举行了一次关于布基纳法索和摩洛哥的非正式会议。

人权事务副高级专员弗拉维亚•潘谢里在开幕致辞中讲到，本次会议正值《保护所有移徙工人及其家庭成员权利国际公约》生效十年后，和联大关于“国际移徙与发展和2015年后议程之间的联系”的高层对话前夕。潘谢里女士谈及非正规移徙工人的权利受到侵犯，而且他们被视为一种安全威胁。2015年后议程必须认识到移民不止是发展的动力，他们也是权利拥有者，是文化与社会群体的组成部分。

委员会主席阿卜迪哈米德·阿里-加姆里（Abdelhamid El Jamri）赞扬了最近提请人们注意迁移问题的举措，并表示，自《公约》的起草工作多年以来，如今明显需要继续为促进和保护移民工人及其家属的人权而努力。他还谈到委员会为加强条约机构系统而采取的措施。

委员会成员还与人权高专办人权条约司司长易卜拉欣·萨拉马讨论了关于加强条约机构系统等事宜。委员会成员强调了有必要提高对《公约》的批准，并讨论了鼓励各国加入《公约》的方式，表示移徙工人往往无力向其居住国政府施压，使其签署《公约》。

委员会随后就布基纳法索和摩洛哥的执行《公约》的情况与非政府组织和国家人权机构的代表举行了非正式会议。委员会将在本次会议上审议这两个国家的报告。

下列非政府组织和国家人权机构也作了发言：摩洛哥人权协会（Association Marocaine des Droits Humains）、阿尔及利亚遭任意驱逐的摩洛哥受害者协会（Association des Marocains victimes d’expulsion arbitraire d’Algérie）、反种族主义并支持和捍卫外国人和移民小组（Groupe antiraciste d’accompagnement et de défense des étrangers et migrants）、摩洛哥人权委员会（Moroccan Human Rights Commission）、国际移徙与发展研究中心（Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur les Migrations Internationales et Développement）。

委员会随后将与9月9日（星期一）下午3点进行公共会议，届时将审议布基纳法索的初次报告（CMC/C/BFA/1）。

Opening Statements

FLAVIA PANSIERI, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said this year the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights celebrated the tenth anniversary of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. To mark the occasion Morocco had recently held a seminar on Migration Policy and Human Rights, which was attended by numerous human rights experts. However, despite progress made, more work was needed to ensure the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers; especially at a time when security concerns had led to violations of the rights of migrant workers, who were sometimes seen as a security threat.

The Deputy High Commissioner noted that the United Nations General Assembly would on 3 and 4 October, in New York, hold a high-level dialogue on migration and development, which would highlight the necessity of linking migration with development and including it in the post-2015 agenda. The Deputy High Commissioner stressed that migration brought many benefits, not only to receiving countries but also to sending countries, so no post-2015 development agenda could be comprehensive unless it truly took migration into account. Migrants were not a commodity or a flow of remittances or skills, but human beings with rights. Therefore, the post-2015 development agenda had to recognize migrants not just as a force for development but also as right-holders who were part of society culturally and socially. The forthcoming session of the General Assembly would also discuss the treaty body strengthening process, which would be an important step towards consolidation of views on how best to strengthen the system; and would hopefully result in a resolution by Member States on strengthening treaty bodies. It was necessary to strengthen the protection of human rights while fully respecting the independence of the treaty body system. Any cost-saving action agreed would have to be reinvested into the treaty body system, and modern technology should facilitate access. More resources were needed for capacity-building.

The Deputy High Commissioner expressed her appreciation for the Committee’s work, which actively demonstrated that words could translate into concrete action. Recent Human Rights Council resolutions urged States to accede to the Convention in order to protect the rights of migrant workers and to promote the fundamental rights of all migrants, regardless of immigration status. At its June 2013 session, the Human Rights Council heard and discussed the report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of migrants, as well as the systematic detention of migrants by States as a means of migration management. The Special Rapporteur was concerned that irregular migration was viewed as a security concern rather than a human rights issue. The Deputy High Commissioner concluded by underlining that migration issues should be mainstreamed into the United Nations system.

ABDELHAMID EL JAMRI, Committee Chairperson, said that the Convention was the only instrument which protected the rights of migrant workers. It was even used as a reference point by States that had not ratified the Convention. There were several positive international initiatives on migrant workers’ rights, such as the high-level dialogue on migration and development which would take place at the next session of the General Assembly.

When the Convention was drafted, it responded to a specific situation which involved an increase in remittance flows and trafficking in persons. Today, many years later, there was a need to continue to work for the promotion and protection of the human rights of migrant workers. The recent meeting in Rabat, Morocco, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Convention and draft the Africa Regional Plan, was the first time experts had had the opportunity of focusing on specific issues related to migration at regional levels. He encouraged experts from other continents to try to recreate similar conferences in order to address the needs of migrant workers in other regions.

The Chairperson noted that the Committee had taken several measures to strengthen the treaty body system, such as in the timing of reviews of reports, as well as taking environmentally-friendly measures, such as a significant reduction of the use of paper. The Committee then adopted its agenda and programme of work for the session.

Dialogue with Committee Experts

Morocco was praised by a Committee Member for its initiative in organizing an expert seminar on migration, as was Ecuador for its initiative in establishing an observatory to deal with trafficking in persons in South and Central America was highly commendable.

A Member of the Committee said that the profile of the Committee had been significantly raised by the universal recognition of its important role in the strengthening of the treaty body system, but Committee membership was limited, which increased the workload of its members and made it difficult for the Committee to have a full impact.

Getting more States to sign the Convention needed increased efforts and greater focus, said a Committee Member. The Office of the High Commissioner should intensify efforts to get more developed countries onboard and increase ratification of the Convention. The Committee Member asked what strategy was being deployed by the Office of the High Commissioner to promote ratification of the Convention.

IBRAHIM SALAMA, Director of Human Rights Treaties Division, said the pace of ratification of the Convention had slowed down. That was not the result of a lack of advocacy but, rather, a reflection of a lack of understanding of the deeper issues related to the Convention. The Rabat seminar had opened the path for further action, although States still had primary responsibility for promoting the rights of migrant workers in their bilateral and multilateral relations and to commit to a set of values not only at the international but also at domestic level.

An Expert said that problems being experienced with regard to increasing ratification of the Convention were closely linked with the lack of political pressure placed upon States. Migrant workers were not part of the political life of the countries where they lived and many of them were in a vulnerable situation, which meant that they had no power to put pressure on the Government of their country of residence to ratify the Convention and take concrete action to protect their rights.

Statements by Non-Governmental Organizations and National Human Rights Institutions

Association Marocaine des Droits Humains said that since Morocco ratified the Convention it had had four different Governments, all of which had implemented the same repressive policy against migrants, particularly those who were nationals of Sub-Saharan countries or in an irregular situation. Other migrants had also been subjected to violent behaviour, which in some cases had been lethal, while human rights defenders were being targeted and harassed by the Moroccan authorities. Morocco should engage in a constructive dialogue with the associations representing migrant workers and should account for the abuse and violent treatment of migrant workers, including workers from the Philippines.

Association des Marocains victimes d’expulsion arbitraire d’Algérie said that in 1975 500,000 Moroccan migrant workers were expelled from Algeria, despite the fact that they had legally resided there for many years and had fully integrated in society. Action should be taken to restore the dignity of the large number of persons affected by that expulsion. The international community should be vigilant to ensure that such incidents did not occur in the future. The Committee could make recommendations to Morocco on how best to deal with that issue.

Groupe antiraciste d’accompagnement et de défense des étrangers et migrants said the rights of migrants needed to be seen in exactly the same light as all other human rights. The Moroccan migration law was repressive and refugees in Morocco lived in a dire situation. Very vulnerable categories of migrants, such as women and children, had suffered group rape and murder. All attempts by migrants to protest against the violation of their rights had been violently suppressed by Morocco, and many Sub-Saharan women lived in unacceptable conditions. Objective and trustworthy inquiries and firm measures were needed to protect the rights of all migrant workers, including women and minors.

The Moroccan Human Rights Commission said that the situation of migrants was being closely monitored in cooperation with several international organizations, and that particular attention was being paid to the areas around the country’s borders. Genuine public policies should be implemented with support from civil society, focusing on the provision of protection to refugees and asylum seekers and their families. Morocco should give illegal migrants effective access to justice; take measures to eradicate all violence against migrants, including torture and interrogations; facilitate birth registration and provide birth certificates. A permanent forum should be set up to allow for exchange of information and sharing of good practices. The Moroccan criminal code should also include new provisions to protect victims of trafficking in persons.

Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur les Migrations Internationales et Développement said that it had been working since 2007 to promote the rights of migrant workers in Burkina Faso. Recent initiatives included awareness-raising campaigns and open days on migration. The State had made sincere efforts to protect the rights of migrant workers by introducing new laws, but more work was needed to reinforce implementation of the Convention. There was a lack of visibility of the Supreme Council for Burkinabés living abroad, and follow-up was limited on reported cases of violations of migrant workers’ rights. Burkina Faso should allocated more resources to ensure that its migrant citizens abroad fully enjoyed their rights, while the rights of foreigner migrants living in Burkina Faso should also be upheld.

The Moroccan Organization for Human Rights said that migrant workers moved around more and more and were often confronted with discrimination and xenophobia. Therefore it was imperative that the international community took action to protect their rights. Morocco had ratified the Convention, adopted a number of protocols and agreements on human rights and strengthened its institutional framework for the protection of human rights. All that had had an impact on the human rights situation of migrant workers, albeit a more limited impact than hoped. Morocco should ensure full implementation of all provisions of the Convention, and shoud ratify all other relevant international instruments to ensure effective protection of migrant workers’ rights.

__________

For use of the information media; not an official record