Convention Establishes Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families
By Kristin Gilmore for the Chronicle
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| According to the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), an estimated 175 million people, or roughly 3 per cent of world population, currently reside outside their country of origin. The reasons for migration are diverse; among others, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) notes that "many migrate in search of better economic opportunities, or in search of education". Historically, migrant workers and their families have not been protected in the international legal system. The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which entered into force on 1 July 2003, three months after it received its required twentieth ratification, intends to change that. The Convention establishes that migrant workers are more than mere units of labour; they are human beings entitled to their fundamental human rights. Article 24 of the Convention states: "Every migrant worker and every member of his or her family shall have the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law". Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called the 93 articles that comprise the Convention "the bill of rights for migrant workers and their families". Likewise, IOM considers the Convention the "single most comprehensive international legal instrument defining the wide range of rights that migrant workers and their families have". The Convention was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 1990—ten years after a working group chaired by Mexico began drafting it. Mexico was the first to sign and Morocco the first to ratify it. By the time it entered into force, the Convention had 22 States parties and 17 signatories. The Population Division reported at the "Kick Off Meeting of the Entry into Force of the Convention" that 2.5 per cent of the migrant workers population worldwide is protected in the 22 States that have ratified the treaty. Secretary-General Annan has said this number is "small" and has called on countries to "become parties to this important instrument". He has also stated that "only when it is ratified by a large number of countries, including those receiving significant numbers of immigrants, will we be able to say that the promise of the Convention is being translated into reality". |
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