IOM’s International Dialogue on Migration Sets Stage for Global Compact on Migration Consultations

Article published on IOM website on 04/18/17

IOM’s two-day (18-19 April) International Dialogue on Migration (IDM) 2017 meeting with the theme, Strengthening International Cooperation on and Governance of Migration towards the Adoption of a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration in 2018, gets underway at the United Nations in New York later today.

The IDM gathers States and key migration actors from all relevant sectors to exchange views and identify concrete and implementable actions for strengthening international cooperation and migration governance.

It is an opportunity for States and all relevant migration actors to frame the core objectives for the global compact, and ground it in the existing normative structures and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing will say in his opening remarks later today, “The Global Compact presents an historical opportunity to achieve a world in which migrants move as a matter of genuine choice rather than necessity; a world of opportunity to migrate through safe, orderly and regular channels; and a world in which migration is well governed and is able to act as a positive force for individuals, societies and States.”

Ambassador Swing will add that “IOM envisions a global compact, therefore, that will place the needs, capacities and contributions of migrants at its core, with a view to ensuring their safety, dignity and human rights.”

Central to this IOM vision, Ambassador Swing will add, are four core elements: protecting the rights of migrants; facilitating safe, orderly and regular migration; reducing the incidence and impacts of forced and irregular migration; and addressing mobility consequences of natural and human-induced disasters.

In her opening remarks, Louise Arbour, the Secretary General’s Special Representative for International Migration will say, “It is up to all of us to embrace human mobility, and recognize that good migration governance requires a commitment to genuine cooperation. People in transit and destination countries should not be made to look at migrants as burdens, or even worse as threats to themselves or their way of life.”

Ms Arbour will add, “Instead, we need collectively to strengthen the narrative – one which has the virtue of truth – that recognizes human mobility and diversity as a contribution to evolving societies and strong economies.”

The IDM meeting will seek participants’ recommendations on building coherence within and between the various levels of migration governance, promoting cooperation mechanisms on migration, and identifying concrete elements for a comprehensive global framework.

The meeting will hear from and interact with a number of distinguished panelists such as the UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina J. Mohammed, the President of the UN General Assembly Peter Thomson, the Secretary General’s Special Representative for International Migration, Louise Arbour, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Ahmed Hussen, the two co-facilitators of the modalities of the GCM process, Permanent Representatives of Switzerland and Mexico and many other distinguished representatives of Governments, civil society, academia and the private sector.

The outcomes from this IDM and the second one scheduled for 18-19 July in Geneva, will feed into the consultation phase of the Global Compact on Migration which will culminate in the stocktaking preparatory meeting in Mexico in December.