COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS DISCUSSES ACTIVITIES MARKING TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF CONVENTION ON RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families today noted that 2010 marks the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and discussed activities to mark this anniversary.

Committee Chairperson Abdelhamid El Jamri said that the Committee would try to organize a joint event with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to commemorate the anniversary of the Convention. Also, the Committee had considered organizing a day of general discussion to publicize the Convention and its importance during the Committee’s thirteenth session in November 2010. States which had ratified the Convention would be invited to share their positive experiences with the ratification and implementation of the Convention.

Mr. El Jamri also addressed the Committee’s work on a draft General Comment concerning domestic migrant workers. The draft General Comment came about because the International Labour Organization (ILO) was preparing an instrument defending the rights of domestic workers generally, so the Committee, along with non-governmental organizations, had organized a day of general discussion last year and the result of that session was the decision to elaborate on the topic of migrant domestic workers. The Committee planned to issue a preliminary draft of General Comment number one which would be distributed among their partners for use at the International Labour Conference to be held in June. The Committee would try to harmonize its work with the ILO and after discussions with the ILO in June they would then revise the draft General Comment for discussion at their thirteenth session in November.

The Committee also heard from non-governmental organizations on what they would do to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Convention. Renee Plaetevoet, Director of December 18th, a Brussels based non-governmental organization that works as an international resource center on the rights of migrant workers, said the organization was looking forward to working with the Committee on commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Convention. To that end, December 18th was planning a number of activities in relation to the anniversary, including a letter writing campaign targeting a number of countries to convince them to ratify the Convention, namely South Africa, Belgium, Costa Rica, Spain, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Mr. Plaetevoet said December 18th was especially focused on the European Union since none of its Member States had ratified the Convention and his organization believed this year provided a special opportunity to draw attention to the issue in the European Union. As such, December 18th would launch a petition campaign in June lasting six months to target European Union Member States. At the conclusion of the petition drive in December, they would give it to Belgium, the country holding the European Union presidency, as well as Hungary, which would assume the presidency at the end of the year. Secondly, they were also planning a radio initiative that entailed a worldwide radio marathon. Last year 250 radio stations from 250 countries participated in this event and this year’s event would focus on the Convention, with special audio programmes containing interviews with members of the Committee. December 18th was also working with Brussels based members of a steering committee to inform European Union Member States about the Convention and ways they could work together to make progress over the next few years to achieve ratification in the European Union.

John Bingham, a representative from the International NGO Platform, an umbrella group that represents more than 20 faith-based and labour organizations who work to strengthen the Migrant Workers Convention, spoke about their hope that this anniversary would provide an opportunity to publicize the Convention. As such, the platform participated in a workshop this year focused on migrant rights and how to best engage with the Committee as well as created buttons that proved quite popular in publicizing the issue of migrant rights.

Regarding the draft General Comment, Mr. Bingham expressed his belief that this was the right issue at the right time. The Committee also had the right expertise to tackle this work due in large part to the personal backgrounds of Committee members whose diverse geographic origins reflected that of so many of the migrant workers who looked to the Convention and Committee for protection.

Mr. Bingham also offered his organization’s perspective on the draft General Comment. He felt the comment should offer practical guidelines, applying the Convention rights to the existing situation of migrant domestic workers and not just describing the situation or repeating the rights. Mr. Bingham said that the Committee had distinguished itself by a focus not only on the reality of the situation on the ground, but by looking at concrete approaches. The International NGO Platform hoped that the Committee would keep the draft General Comment practical as well, focusing on concrete recommendations. He also noted that the draft comment could offer enormous value, not only to the States which have ratified the Convention, but to other States as well and not only to countries that were destinations for migrant workers but to their countries of origin as well. The draft General Comment could also be of help to other treaty enforcing bodies such as the ILO as well as civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations.

Mr. Bingham concluded by saying that his organization remained committed to continuing its work with the Committee by helping to broaden awareness about the Committee’s work, consulting with the Committee on the draft itself and strategizing ways to have the draft included in other processes, in particular the new ILO convention.

In responding to Mr. Bingham’s comments, Mr. El Jamri, the Committee Chairperson, emphasized that the Committee had always tried to be helpful and to add value to the thought process and the aim of this draft General Comment was in fact to obtain better application of the Convention. Mr. El Jamri pointed out that although the Convention had only been ratified by 42 States it was still a yardstick by which other States could be judged so the impact was larger than the sheer number of ratifications. The process of drafting general comments would probably be applied to other topics as well, for example the issue of unaccompanied migrant workers who are minors. In this way, the Committee hoped it could also be a learning tool to help countries deal with some of these issues, even those who had not ratified the Convention.

The Chairperson thanked both organizations for their continued work and engagement with the Committee on the issue of migrant workers and their rights.

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. this afternoon when it will adopt its annual report and its concluding observations on the initial report of Algeria which was considered at this session. It would then conclude its twelfth session.

For use of the information media; not an official record

CMW10/004E