International Migration Review Forum

May 17-21st

This year, the first review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration took place from Mary 16-23^rd. The NGO Committee on Migration (CoM) has helped us to understand the significance of the week and how to move forward with the work for Global Migration.

Before the Forum began the Secretary General of the UN, Gutteres wrote a report and outlined the following three things to consider regarding Migration:

First, recognize and reinforce the benefits of migration.
Second, states need to strengthen the rule of law underpinning how they manage and protect migrants.
Third we need greater international cooperation to protect vulnerable migrants as well as refugees, and we must establish the integrity of the refugee protection regime in line with international law.

“Migration should not mean suffering.”

NGO CoM has four subcommittees: racism and xenophobia, children in migration, climate change, migrants in vulnerable situations and mixed migration. Each of these committees are very active and offer an education piece every four months for the committee. The committee meets monthly on third Thursday from 11:00-1:30 PM.

The NGO Committee on Migration produced a four-page advocacy document, entitled Priorities and Practices for Solutions in the SDGs, the Global Compact for Migration, and the International Migration Review Forum in 2022 and beyond.

The document helped to guide our visits with representatives of Permanent Missions to the UN, in the lead up to the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF).

It called attention to the following thematic areas:

Lessons of COVID-time: make permanent and replicate positive practices and partnerships
Climate change
Migrants in vulnerable situations, including mixed migration
Children in migration
Xenophobia, racism and fostering inclusion

The document also provides concrete examples of solutions that were developed by the worldwide membership of the NGO Committee on Migration: practitioners and advocates, networks and organizations with members on the front-line at grass-roots, national, regional, and international levels; partners with States, local authorities, and business. Many of these whom are migrants, refugees, diaspora, or their family members.

Click here to read the priorities document, which became the basis of our participation in the IMRF.

During the past year the NGO Committee on Migration has been working diligently with a small core group in drafting a Progressive Migration Declaration. Click here to read Rev 4.

A comparison of the UN Member States’ Rev 2 to the key priorities of the NGO Committee on Migration can be accessed here, and summaries and recordings from the previous townhalls can be found on this page.

Here were the Round Table themes:

Round Table 1

Round Table 2

Round Table 3

Round Table 4