REF/1214

Secretary-General to Convene High-Level Meeting on Migration, Refugee Movements

On 30 September, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene a high-level meeting at Headquarters on migration and refugee movements.  All Member States have been invited at the highest level to the event, which will be held on the side-lines of the high-level segment of the seventieth session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The high-level side event will provide an important opportunity for Member States to discuss the challenges and responsibilities, as well as the opportunities, that large migrant and refugee movements bring.  Different policy areas, from refugee and human rights, smuggling and trafficking to sustainable development and migration will be brought to bear on the current dramatic increase in forced displacement and mixed migration flows.

“Long-term strategies and commitments are needed, combined with action across a wide range of policy areas,” Mr. Ban said.  “Migration can be well-managed and refugee movements can be governed in an efficient and principled manner through effective cooperation among countries of origin, transit and destination.  The international community must develop a response that is effective, feasible and in line with universal human rights and humanitarian standards, including the right to claim asylum.”

The Secretary-General will open the event, which is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. in Conference Room 4.  The Prime Minister of Turkey and the Foreign Ministers of Mexico, Indonesia and Germany will also make addresses from the podium.

The general debate will start with Heads of State and Government addressing the meeting.  Heads of regional organizations will intervene as discussants and a coalition of civil society organizations will have the opportunity to make a joint statement.

The Secretary-General will initially chair the meeting, followed by Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.  Also delivering statements are High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration Peter Sutherland, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The Deputy Secretary-General will make concluding remarks and will speak to the press at the stakeout directly following the meeting.

The meeting and the media stakeout will be broadcast on UNTV and will be shown on UN WebTV at http://webtv.un.org.

For more information, please contact Douglas Coffman, Department of Public Information, at e-mail:  coffmand@un.org, tel.:  +1 212 963 4481; or Josephine Guerrero, at e-mail:  guerreroj@un.org, tel.:  +1 212 963 1964.

For information media. Not an official record.