Statement for the GFMD in Athens

The NGO Committee on Migration together with some 60 other organisations issued a statement with a series of recommendations for the upcoming Global Forum on Migration and Development in Athens.

Effective institutional and policy coherence regarding migration and development requires Government compliance with existing UN instruments and agreements and the recognition that the GFMD must be rooted in UN Conventions and Treaties.  We therefore applaud and endorse the decisions of the States members of the UN to hold a High-level dialogue on International Migration and Development in 2013, and a one-day informal thematic debate on Migration and Development in 2011.

Many of the recommendations we make are based on Resolutions passed by member States of the United Nations General Assembly during this past year, on reports of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, and by agencies of the United Nations. These are part of the official record of positions held by the United Nations in regard to migration. We wish to recall and reiterate these positions and urge that, rooted as they are in a human rights agenda, they become an essential ingredient of the deliberations by the Global Forum on Migration and Development.