Migration is one of the biggest challenges in recent years, transcending questions of sustainable development, human rights, peace and security. In September 2016, the UN General Assembly hosted a High-Level Summit during which Member States committed to negotiating a “Global Compact on Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration”. The IPU is closely following this process, which will conclude with a major conference in September 2018.
As part of the negotiating process, the IPU facilitated the participation of a group of 17 MPs from 11 parliaments in two meetings at UN Headquarters from 24 to 26 July: a thematic session primarily on the economic aspects of migration, led by governmental representatives, and a multistakeholder hearing designed to allow parliamentarians, civil society representatives, academics and other experts to review the main issues that may be part of the global compact. The meetings underlined the complexity of the migrant experience both for countries of origin and destination, and the need for global cooperation as the only way to achieve the agreed objective of making migration a choice, rather than a necessity.
Particularly active among the group of MPs were Mr. Georgios Psychogios (Greece), Senator Ekwee Ethuro (Kenya), Ms Maria Teresa Morais (Portugal), Mr. Aytug Atici (Turkey), Mr. Lars Castellucci (Germany) and Mr. Komakech Lyandro (Uganda), all of whom provided comments and questions in response to the various panels. Their interventions underscored the salience of this issue to different national contexts. At the close of the meeting, the President of the General Assembly, Peter Thomson, and the co-facilitator, Ambassador José Gomez-Camacho, acknowledged the contribution of parliamentarians and the IPU and encouraged them to continue to engage in the process.
More consultations on specific topics are on the calendar this year, which will culminate with a stocktaking meeting in Mexico from 4 to 6 December. In addition to contributing to some of these consultations, the IPU will work with the President of the General Assembly to organize a Parliamentary Hearing on migration in February 2018, just weeks before the start of negotiations of the global compact.
