UN reaches agreement on Global Compact for Migration
View(s):UN Member States on Friday, July 13 reached a historic agreement on migration; endorsing the final text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The symbolic knock of the gavel performed by the Swiss and Mexican UN Ambassadors emphatically concluded the intergovernmental negotiations on the Global Compact, UN agencies said in a media release.
The Swiss Ambassador Jürg Lauber and his Mexican colleague, Ambassador Juan José Gómez Camacho, served as co-facilitators of the process and led both the broad-based substantive consultations in the year 2017 as well as the intergovernmental negotiations that have taken place in six rounds between February and July 2018, it said. The decision has a profound impact on Sri Lanka given that more than 1.5 million workers are based in West Asia as labour migrants.
At an Intergovernmental Conference, in Marrakesh, Morocco, on December 10-11, 2018, Heads of States and Governments will formally adopt the Global Compact for Migration, heralding the implementation of this first global framework for cooperation on international migration that addresses the phenomenon in all its dimensions.
The Global Compact aims to facilitate migration that is safe, orderly and regular, while reducing the impact and incidence of irregular migration by taking into account the needs of migrants, communities and States, the release said. Acknowledging that no State can address the challenges and opportunities of migration alone, the Global Compact recognises that concerted international cooperation is required to effectively anticipate and collectively respond to migration movements, optimise the contributions of migrants to sustainable development and protect the human rights of migrants, while safeguarding borders, national laws and the interests of societies.
The Global Compact stipulates a cooperative framework whose core elements are a set of 23 objectives and commitments covering the whole migration cycle, as well as ten cross-cutting guiding principles. The actions outlined under each objective are a set of policy instruments and best practices that have been identified throughout the preparatory process by governments and stakeholders, including civil society, scientific and knowledge-based institutions, parliaments, local authorities, the private sector and migrants themselves.
The actions thus represent intergovernmentally-agreed best practices that can be applied and adapted in accordance with national and regional realities and priorities in fulfillment of the 23 objectives and corresponding commitments, the release added.