GMPA: Global Migration Policy Associates

Migration Topics

Decent Work
Development
Dynamics and Trends
Environment and Climate Change
Family and Children
Gender
Globalization
Governance
Health
Human Rights
Integration, Equality and Non-Discrimination
International Standards
Labour and Skills Mobility
Social Security
Statistics
Regional Dynamics, Issues and Trends


Labour and Skills Mobility


Family and Children


Dynamics and Trends


Governance

International Standards
(Research papers and policy briefs below)

International Standards such as International Human Rights Conventions, International Labour Standards and other instruments provide the normative foundations for the rule of law and they offer specific standard text formulations for national laws. They constitute a fundamental pillar for the rights-based approach to migration.

International standards applying explicitly to international migration and migrants are found in five areas of international law:

  1. International Human Rights law, notably the nine fundamental Human Rights Conventions comprising the two Covenants respectively on Political and Civil Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, along with the International Conventions addressing specific groups and situations: victims of racial discrimination, victims of torture, women, children, migrant workers, and persons with disabilities.
  2. International Labour Standards, in effect all of them, except where - rarely - foreign workers are exempted.
  3. Refugee and asylum law, namely the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees
  4. Consular Relations, namely the Vienna Convention on subject
  5. International Criminal Law, namely the Protocols on Trafficking in Persons and on smuggling of migrants of the International Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.

Regional standards, in some cases Conventions, address human rights, migration and refugees explicitly in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the CIS and Europe.

International Conventions on Human Rights and International Labour Standards lay out three basic principles of international law:

Three complementary, sequential international conventions on migration and migrant workers provide the core foundation for rights based, regulatory and cooperative governance of migration: ILO Convention 97 on Migration for Employment (1949), ILO Convention 143 on migrant workers (Supplementary Provisions) of 1975, and the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW). These three instruments contain a comprehensive set of legal norms for governance and administration of migration, for international dialogue and cooperation, and for recognition and protection of universal human rights including labour rights that apply to all migrant workers and members of their families, and in effect to all migrants. ( Texts, ratification status and related information available respectively at: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:12001:::NO::: and http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CMW.aspx )

Protection of rights of all migrants cannot be realized nor enforced without recognition in national law and practice. Ratification of these instruments and incorporation of their provisions in national legislation is the necessary foundation for national and local governance and regulation of migration under the rule of law. In reality, as of  26 November 2023, 96 States (half of the UN membership) have ratified at least one of these three instruments, 15 Council of Europe participating States, 35 African Union Member States and nearly all States in Central and South America have ratified one or more of these three conventions. Counting in the additional signatories of the ICRMW that have not ratified any of these Conventions, 101 countries worldwide are legally committed to uphold legal standards governing migration and protecting rights of migrants.

GMPA Associates have been instrumental in obtaining ratifications of International Standards and practical measures ensuring protection of migrants as well as effective governance of migration in numerous countries. GMPA offers technical expertise and advisory support for implementation of international instruments, in cooperation with normative institutions such as OHCHR and ILO.

Documents and Papers