PSI at the UN High Level Meeting on Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees

The summit concluded with the adoption of the “New York Declaration on Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees”. The Declaration consists of :

(1) A Political Declaration to Address Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees,

(2) Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework Towards a Global Compact on Refugees

(3) Launch of an inter-governmental process Towards a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

The summit also culminated the signing of the agreement between the UN and International Organization for Migration (IOM), bringing the IOM in closer relationship within the UN system. This elicited some concerns from trade unions and civil society. Within the agreement, the IOM maintains its autonomy and non-normative nature. As an agency in relationship with the UN system, the IOM must work with the UN in promoting the rights-based normative framework, embodied in the UN Core Conventions, in particular, the UN Migrant Workers Convention, as well as the ILO Conventions on Migrant Workers. The IOM must ensure that its field operations and projects do not violate the human rights of migrants.

Over the next two years, PSI will be engaging with the UNHCR, ILO, IOM and the UN system in the multisectoral consultations that will be carried out towards the adoption of the two major Global Compacts in 2018.

Also in parallel with the Obama-led State Leaders’ Summit on Refugees on 20 September, PSI organised a joint PSI-SEIU “Roundtable on the Refugee Crisis” and participated in the Global Unions “Speak-Out Rally for Dignity and Decent Work for Refugees” in New York.