Making the United Nations Relevant to all People– As delivered –
Statement by H.E. Mrs. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly
27 February 2019
Ambassador Santiago Chávez, Vice-Minister of Human Mobility from the Republic of Ecuador and Chair of the Global Forum on Migration and Development,
Distinguished Ministers, Permanent Representatives,
Delegates,
Representatives of Civil Society,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Almost three months have passed since we, in the General Assembly, endorsed the Global Compact for a Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first global cooperation framework to address all dimensions of international migration.
This makes this High Level Debate that we are having today both necessary and opportune. The Debate addresses two of the most important topics of our multilateral agenda: migration and sustainable development, both are deeply linked and interdependent.
Additionally, we are approaching two great events that we will have to review the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: the High Level Political Forum, as part of ECOSOC, next July, and the Political Forum Summit, under de auspices of the General Assembly, during the High Level Week of the 74th session.
This Summit will be fundamental for migrants as it seeks to empower all persons and reduce inequalities.
Excellencies,
I would like to address three topics that I consider to be crucial for today’s discussion
First, we will not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals if we do not include migrant persons in a comprehensive manner. People are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda. Target 10.7 refers to the need of facilitating a safe, regular and responsible migration and makes a call to implement planned and well managed migration policies.
That is why including migrants in policies and actions aimed at broadening access to quality education, health, housing and basic services, water and sanitation, is essential, but we also need to build pacific and inclusive societies.
In recent years, we have witnessed great migratory movements that have caused thousands of deaths.
Achieving sustainable development, in all countries and regions, as established by the 2030 Agenda, will allow minimizing the adversities that cause migration. In other words, delivering on the sustainable development goals will be the best prevention tool for a disordered migration.
Let us bear in mind that no person leaves their family, their land and their affections behind if they do not have a powerful reason to do so.
Likewise, leaving their country of origin, crossing one or several borders and settling in a country, whichever it might be, make guaranteeing the rights of migrants even more necessary.
Therefore, the 23 Goals of the Global Compact on Migration were structured pursuant to the 2030 Agenda, addressing the risks and challenges that people and communities face in their countries of origin, transit and destination for migration.
Excellencies,
There are fundamental aspects that must be addressed in this Dialogue, such as human smuggling and trafficking and the relationship between migration and labour policies.
The latter is one of my priorities for my Presidency. Access to decent work is one of the keys to deliver on the 2030 Agenda. In fact, on next April the 10th, I have convened a commemorative meeting for the hundredth anniversary of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to address the transformations of the labour market and the future of work; we must not leave migrants out of this analysis and discussion.
We must also particularly address the situation and the needs of migrant women, who represent more than half of the migrant population of the world and in fact they face labour policies that are more restrictive than the ones applicable to men and are more vulnerable to violence and exploitation.
Women and girls represent 71% of all the victims of trafficking in persons. Migrant women face greater obstacles to gain access to health services.
I must say that, during each of my official visits -now as President of the Assembly and before as Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility Minister of Ecuador- I have been able to confirm that there is still a lot of work to do to include migrants.
But I have also been able to confirm the enormous contribution of migration to development, which leads me to my second point.
Migration is part of human history. This phenomenon has always existed. There is no country or people in the world that has not been transformed by it. Now we have the historical opportunity of working together to avoid dangerous or forced migrations. We can turn migration into an option and not a necessity for survival.
The benefits of migration clearly outweigh its challenges.
As I declared at the adoption of the Global Compact on Migration: either if it is a mother from Mali who is crossing the desert to reach Niger or a college student from India who goes to school in Canada; or a retired American who decides to live in Vilcabamba or in Cuenca, Ecuador: all, absolutely all are looking for better and greater opportunities; opening the doors of new worlds; enriching cultural diversity and contributing to development, both for the communities that take them in and those they departed from.
Most remittances are sent to developing countries and their contributions to the economy are three times greater than the Official Development Assistance. In 2017, 600 billion were sent in remittances, out of which 450 billion were sent to developing countries.
This is how migrants contribute in making progress on specific objectives of the 2030 Agenda such as reducing poverty, eradicating hunger and promoting health.
Additionally, 85% of the earnings of migrant workers remain in the countries of destination. That way, migrants also contribute to the economic growth of the countries of destination, creating employments and in the distribution of services.
In a globalized and interdependent world, human mobility must be used as an opportunity; as a driving force for development: for migrants and their families, as well as for the countries of origin, transit and destination.
The third point is that we must achieve a better communication about migration. To do so, we must promote a well informed debate on migration, from a comprehensive, inclusive and balanced perspective.
We must work to banish the prejudices that, unfortunately, have been associated with migration. This must be a shared effort between governments, the media, civil society organization, parliaments and local governments to eradicate xenophobia, prejudices and negative and discriminatory expressions about migrants.
Let there be no doubt: the Global Compact on Migration does not affect the sovereignty of any State. On the contrary, it reinforces it. No State, no matter how powerful, can solve -by itself- the challenges of migration. The Compact favors the cooperation between States as the best tool to face migration.
Now, our commitment is the implementation of the Global Compact on Migration. For that purpose, I have appointed the Permanent Representatives of Bangladesh and Spain as co-facilitators of the process to determine the modalities of the “International Migration Review Forum,” which will be the organization in charge of following-up on the Compact.
The active and constructive participation of Member States in this process is vital to have an agile and effective follow-up and a learning mechanism in the implementation of the Compact, a mechanism that facilitates and promotes exchanging good practices, which are actually already being used in many countries of the world. During my official visits to France, Canada and Oman, among others, I was able to confirm some of them. This shows us that we are not implementing from scratch.
But we also need to have better data and accurate, evidence-based information about the realities of migration. Let’s not forget that there are human beings, families and names behind all the numbers and statistics.
Excellencies,
In conclusion, I must point out that we have very little information about the benefits and progress on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, in favor of migrants. We know that there are numerous efforts to build policies, tools and alliances, but we also know that there are gaps.
I am sure that this dialogue will in fact contribute to identify the way in which we can boost the contributions of migrants to development and make progress in including migrants as part of the benefits of implementing the 2030 Agenda.
Migration is part of human history. This phenomenon has always existed. There is no country or people in the world that has not been transformed by it. Now we have the historical opportunity of working together to avoid dangerous or forced migrations. We can turn migration into an option and not a necessity for survival.
With much excitement, I look forward to the results of this debate, which I am sure will continue to enrich migration dialogues, practices and policies and will contribute to the construction process of the Review Forum.
Thank you.
