UN DESA’s Population Division organized the Tenth Coordination Meeting on International Migration at the UN from 9 to 10 February. The coordination meeting brought together representatives from UN entities, other relevant intergovernmental and regional organizations, Member States, civil society and the research community. In total, some 120 participants attended the two-day event.
The meeting discussed the contributions of relevant entities of the UN system and other organizations to the preparations of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, which will be organized by the General Assembly during its sixty-eighth session in 2013.
The meeting also examined cooperation between international organizations and the 2011 and 2012 editions of the Global Forum on Migration and Development. The Global Forum is a voluntary, intergovernmental, non-binding and informal consultative process open to all Member States and Observers of the United Nations.
Experts from international organizations and academia informed participants about the latest research findings on global migration levels and trends, remittances, and the complex relationship between population, migration and the environment.
The coordination meeting allowed international organizations to exchange information on current activities and to present major new initiatives in the area of international migration. As such, the meeting provided a unique venue to enhance interagency coherence, in particular in responding to the growing demand from Member States for activities and support on issues relating to the multidimensional aspects of international migration and development.
The outcomes of the meeting will contribute to the report of the Secretary-General on international migration and development for the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly and to the preparations for the 2013 High-level Dialogue.
In a recent message, marking the International Migrants Day on 18 December, 2011, Ban Ki-moon also highlighted the valuable role migrants play, “Migrants make vast contributions to host countries. As workers, they bring skills. As entrepreneurs, they create jobs. As investors, they bring capital…No migrant should be sent back to a place where he or she will be tortured. Every migrant woman should have access to health care, including reproductive health care. Every migrant child should be able to go to school.”
