COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS OPENS ITS THIRTIETH SESSION
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families this morning opened its thirtieth session, hearing an address by Orest Nowosad, Chief of Section at the Human Rights Treaties Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, swearing in new Committee Members, and adopting its agenda and programme of work.
At the beginning of the meeting, Committee Members held a minute of silence to pay tribute to Committee Member Abdelhamid El Jamri from Morocco, who recently passed away. The Committee heard two new Committee Members make their solemn declaration, Mohammed Charef from Morocco who replaced Mr. El Jamri, and Lazhar Soualem from Algeria, who replaced Khedidja Ladjel, who also passed away last year. The Committee paid tribute to Ms. Ladjel at its twenty-ninth session.
In his opening statement, Mr. Nowosad stressed that there had never been a time more crucial than nowadays to advance human rights in migration. There were currently about 258 million migrants in the world, about half of whom were women. According to estimates from 2017, about 50 million were children, the majority of whom were living in the Global South. There was now a toxic environment whereby it was seen as accepted that the rights of migrant workers and members of their families continued to be regularly violated. Migrant workers worked in harmful and dangerous conditions. Mr. Nowosad believed that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, adopted by the world leaders of more than 160 Member States in Marrakesh in December 2018, was an important step to address the challenges faced and to improve global governance on migration that placed migrants and their human rights squarely at its centre.
Mr. Nowosad reminded that since the previous session of the Committee, there had been two new ratifications of the Convention: by The Gambia on 28 September 2018, and Guinea-Bissau on 22 December 2018. That brought the number of States parties to the Convention to 54. While it was a welcome development, it was not enough because no major country of destination of migrant workers was a State party yet. Mr. Nowosad echoed the High Commissioner for Human Rights when she had highlighted inequalities and their underlying factors as drivers for involuntary and precarious migration to seek a life in dignity.
The Committee then held a meeting with two non-governmental organizations from Tajikistan, whose report will be reviewed this week. The reports of Albania, Guatemala and Libya will also be reviewed by the Committee this week, but there were no non-governmental organizations present to speak about the situation in those countries.
The two organizations drew attention to the rights of labour migrants from Tajikistan working in the Russian Federation, noting that the authorities of Tajikistan were not interested in defending their rights. Tajikistan continued to be a labour providing country, with 14 per cent of the working age population of the country in labour migration, and 98 per cent of those were in Russia. The majority were from rural areas of Tajikistan and they filled the unskilled labour niche in Russia, which increased their vulnerability to labour exploitation. Tajikistan did not have an effective system of pre-departure preparation, or any migration strategy or other comprehensive migration programme. The previous Migration Strategy for 2011-2015 was no longer in force. The organizations also drew attention to the status and migration of Roma (Luli) from Tajikistan to the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan, where they lived in an even more difficult situation.
Speaking were ADC Memorial and Human Rights Centre.
The Committee will next meet in public today at 3 p.m. when it will consider the second periodic report of Albania (CMW/C/ALB/2).
Opening Statement
OREST NOWOSAD, Chief of Section at the Human Rights Treaties Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, paid tribute to the two members of the Committee who had passed away recently – Khedidja Ladjel from Algeria, and Abdelhamid El Jamri from Morocco. The Committee had approved Lazhar Soualem from Algeria, and Mohammed Charef from Morocco as new members to replace Ms. Ladjel and Mr. El Jamri respectively. Mr. Nowosad stressed that there had never been a time more crucial than nowadays to advance human rights in migration. There were currently about 258 million migrants in the world, about half of whom were women. According to estimates from 2017, about 50 million were children, the majority of whom were living in the Global South. There was now a toxic environment whereby it was seen as accepted that the rights of migrant workers and members of their families continued to be regularly violated. Migrant workers worked in harmful and dangerous conditions. They received wages often well below the minimum wage and worked excessive hours, which could often equate to modern slavery. They were subject to fraudulent practices and lamentably to sexual violence, threats and intimidation. The abuses against migrant workers intensified further when they were in an irregular situation or in a vulnerable situation. They were preyed upon for profit.
Mr. Nowosad believed that the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, adopted by the world leaders of more than 160 Member States in Marrakesh in December 2018, was an important step to address the challenges faced and to improve global governance on migration that placed migrants and their human rights squarely at its centre. It referenced the Convention on Migrant Workers as one of the international human rights instruments that had inspired its contents. What was now needed was implementation and Mr. Nowosad expressed hope that receiving States would show their mettle by signing up to the Convention; otherwise the words on paper would remain hollow. The adoption of the Global Compact on Migration had been a hard-fought victory for human rights and multilateralism. On 19 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly had approved the Global Compact by resolution 73/195. Mr. Nowosad reminded that 152 United Nations Member States had voted in favour of the Global Compact, and that all 13 Member States which had so far only signed the Convention had voted in favour. That outcome could indeed serve as a momentum for advocacy for more ratifications of, or accession to the Convention. As the international community moved towards implementation of the Global Compact, there was a unique opportunity for the Committee and its partners to make it a priority to increase the number of States parties to the Convention.
Mr. Nowosad reminded that since the previous session of the Committee, there had been two new ratifications of the Convention by The Gambia on 28 September 2018, and Guinea-Bissau on 22 December 2018. That brought the number of States parties to the Convention to 54. While it was a welcome development, it was not enough. No major country of destination of migrant workers was yet a State party. Mr. Nowosad underlined that the Committee had to find a way to engage receiving States and to help them appreciate how the Convention could help them resolve some of the cleavages that were breaking apart societies. The Convention was not a stick, but rather a tool to help heal the many wounds of misunderstanding between sending, transit and receiving States. During the session, the Committee would meet with Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Almost all of them had ratified the Convention, except four, three of which – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo – had signed the Convention. Mr. Nowosad expressed hope that the interest generated in relation to the meeting would heed the intended result of additional ratifications of the Convention.
In her interactive dialogue with the Human Rights Council at its fortieth session, the High Commissioner for Human Rights had highlighted inequalities and their underlying factors, including poverty, discrimination, oppression, violence, poor governance, climate change, and violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, as drivers for involuntary and precarious migration to seek a life in dignity. She had praised regional comprehensive development plans being developed in parts of Latin America in response to that challenge and in line with the Global Compact for Migration. She had deplored the high risk of gender-based violence that migrant women and girls were exposed to in many parts of the world. She had also taken issue with the push back at borders and detention of migrant children in other parts of the world, thereby severely restricting their right to seek asylum. The High Commissioner had been encouraged by recent developments in the European Union towards more sound migration policies. But at the same time she had called on the European Union and its Member States to prioritize the lives and safety of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, to strengthen search and rescue measures, to permit rescues by non-governmental organizations, and to coordinate swift and safe disembarkation of migrants. The High Commissioner had noted that unilateral measures were simply unable to resolve a large and fast-growing range of issues such as migration, Mr. Nowosad reminded.
Turning to the 2020 review of the treaty body system, Mr. Nowosad said that the discussions at the thirty-first meeting of treaty body chairs from 24 to 28 June 2019 would largely focus on treaty body strengthening and reform. He added that the Committee would receive a more in-depth briefing on the status of the 2020 review and meeting of the treaty body chairs later during the session. The substantive engagement of the Committee in that process was critical.
Comments by the Committee Experts
The Experts paid tribute to the Committee Members who had recently passed away, namely Khedidja Ladjel from Algeria, and Abdelhamid El Jamri from Morocco, and they praised their contribution to the work of the Committee. They also welcomed the members who replaced them.
The Experts expressed faith in the calibre of the new High Commissioner for Human Rights, which was very important at the time of marginalization of migrants’ rights due to the rise of populist policies. The Committee needed her leadership in order to maintain the focus on migrants’ rights. The Committee on Migrant Workers had the most difficult task in implementing its mandate, due to the limited number of countries that had ratified the Convention.
The Committee needed more regional cooperation in the implementation of the Convention, as well as more organized cooperation among United Nations treaty bodies in order to be able to pose questions to those countries that had not ratified the Convention.
MARIA LANDAZURI DE MORA, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee, reminded that even though only 54 States had ratified the Convention, the Committee had under its responsibility the greatest number of rights holders because migrants were present almost everywhere.
Solemn Declaration by the Newly Appointed Members of the Committee and Adoption of the Agenda
The Committee then proceeded with the solemn declarations of the new members of the Committee, namely Lazhar Soualem from Algeria, and Mohammed Charef from Morocco, who replaced Khedidja Ladjel and Abdelhamid El Jamri respectively.
The Committee adopted the agenda and programme of work of the thirtieth session.
Statements by Non-Governmental Organizations from Tajikistan
ADC Memorial noted that labour migrants from Tajikistan working in the Russian Federation had sent $ 1.5 billion in remittances, making up 33 per cent of the GDP of the country. But the authorities of Tajikistan were not interested in defending their rights. The administration had set up their own regulations in which labour rights were not enshrined. Migrant workers had to pay a mediator who placed them on the market, and they were often injured in clashes with security forces which went unnoticed. The separation of children from their parents was another problem facing migrant workers. The organization cited a case of such separation in Saint Petersburg in 2015, when a Tajik child died in hospital under unknown circumstances and his parents had been expelled from the country. The Tajik authorities had not pursued any investigation or offered support to the aggrieved parents. The organization also drew attention to the status and migration of Roma (Luli) from Tajikistan to the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan, where they lived in an even more difficult situation.
Human Rights Centre reminded that Tajikistan continued to be a labour providing country, with 14 per cent of the working age population in Tajikistan in labour migration, and 98 per cent of those were in Russia. The majority of migrant workers (55 per cent) did not have a job before leaving for migration. The majority were from rural areas of Tajikistan and they filled the unskilled labour niche in Russia, which increased their vulnerability to labour exploitation. Tajikistan did not have an effective system of pre-departure preparation, or any migration strategy or other comprehensive migration programme. The previous Migration Strategy for 2011-2015 was no longer in force. The draft Law on Migration had not been discussed with civil society after 2015, and there was no available information on whether it would be adopted. The organization called for the development of a separate State programme on labour migration to establish priorities and an agenda for the regulation of labour migration from Tajikistan, the adoption of a law on migration, the provision of an adequate and sufficient budget for the development of pre-departure preparation for migrant workers, the improvement of the legal framework for private employment agencies, and monitoring of the labour market.
For use of the information media; not an official record
CMW/19/1E